


Lone Fox 3 – Scarlet and Silver

by John_f_drake



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, F/M, Kitsune, Multi, Rape/Non-con Elements, outfoxed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:34:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 106,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29440515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_f_drake/pseuds/John_f_drake
Summary: Growing up can be hard in the shadow of one of the most terrifying creatures ever to come from your village... but Hanabi is about to learn just how much harder it can get.
Kudos: 1





	1. Prologue

Thanks for reading! Me and my cowriter Darinost are slowly combining blogs and comment sections, so feel free to join us all on [discord ](https://discord.gg/TtJ2P77)to discuss stories!

* * *

Doval cursed his rotten luck for the hundredth time that day. Of all the contracts he could have accepted, why did it have to be this one?

“Another man down, sir,” said Bertran as he ducked to enter Doval’s command tent. The stocky, dark haired man had a stony countenance, and the scratches across his face that he’d received two days ago hadn’t done him any favors, but the lieutenant still managed to project an air of sheepishness as he delivered the news. “Dr Garau is in the infirmary getting treated by his staff.”

Doval sighed. The doctor. Of course it would be the doctor. He was seated at his desk, looking through the scattered reports on it. Not reading them anymore, just looking, staring, hoping some solution would jump out at him that he hadn’t seen the first fifty times he’d gone through them. “What was it this time?”  
  
“He was relieving himself in the bushes just outside of camp when he saw one of them, sir. He gave chase and…” Bertran hesitated.

“What did he do, lieutenant?” Doval asked tiredly.

“He wasn’t coherent enough to give all the details, sir, but somehow he ended up hugging a badger. The nurse says he should recover full use of his fingers after a few weeks of physical therapy and bed rest.”

“A badger,” Doval said flatly. “And why was our only doctor outside the perimeter in the first place, instead of using one of the latrines?”

  
Bertran’s expression somehow managed to grow even more sheepish without changing a tic. “Most of the men have stopped using them, sir, ever since the incident.” That had been Nico two nights ago, who’d woken up the entire camp with his screams after he took a dump in a latrine that turned out to have been housing a family of sleeping vipers.

Doval groaned and put his head in his hands. “Of course they have.” The old bastard had made it sound like it was going to be an easy assignment too. Fuck him, and fuck Doval for believing him. He should have known better than to trust a dragon. He usually never accepted contracts from subhumans to begin with, but they’d been promised nearly ten times their usual asking price, and even better, some of those infamous fox marbles. Wealth, power, and nigh immortality were hard to turn down. “So that leaves us with eight able bodied men, including you and me. We came here with thirty, Bertran, and a week later we’re down to eight.”

“Yes, sir,” Bertran said noncommittally. The unspoken question hung in the air between them: was this the breaking point? Giving up and returning home would mean drawing Karakostas’s wrath and forfeiting payment, but so would getting an entire squad taken out of commission without so much as a single animal captured.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. In his five years of mercenary work, Doval had been on plenty of hunts before; all of them had. Sometimes they lasted a few hours, sometimes a few days, but they were always straightforward and simple. Find the creatures, bag them, and then have some fun with them until it was time to go home. They’d taken a private cargo plane to get here, and most of the men had spent the entire flight joking about how much sex they were going to be having. They’d all looked at this job as more of a vacation than anything else.

Some fucking vacation. A week of traipsing through the forest, getting picked off one by one by creatures they hadn’t even seen yet, let alone captured. “If we could catch just one of the damn beasts,” Doval muttered. “Just one.” If they had **something** to bring back home, **anything** , he could at least try to spin it as a success. He unconsciously scratched some of the hornet stings on his chest; waking up after the first day to discover three nests in the barracks, all filled with angry swarms, had been just the first of many unpleasant surprises waiting for them. That particular one had taken out four of of his men and nearly killed Llorens when he’d had a bad allergic reaction. Thankfully it hadn’t happened again, but everyone still performed regular sweeps of the barracks for any new nests.

“About that, sir,” Bertran said slowly, lowering his voice, “There appears to be a bit of fur where Dr Garau was… attacked, and it doesn’t look like it was from the badger. He was only a few meters from camp when it occurred, so the creatures must have fled before they noticed it. I saw it myself.”

Doval’s heart pounded. Finally! “Why the hell didn’t you lead with that?!” he hissed.

Bertran stepped closer, lowering his voice even further. “None of the other men noticed, sir, and I pretended not to either. I told them I was coming back here to report to you about Dr Garau.”

Doval nodded slowly. Right. Bertran wasn’t the first man to suspect that the beasts were spying on them somehow. It would explain why no matter what path they took through the forest, they invariably found it filled with booby traps and were forced to retreat back to their camp here. But if one of the creatures had made a mistake, and didn’t realize they’d found it… he stood from his desk. “Show me.”  
  
“Are you certain that’s wise, sir?” Bertran asked. “Perhaps you should send one of the other men to investigate in your place, just to be safe.”

Doval shook his head. “No, I need to see this for myself, and quickly. They could be back any minute to clean it up. And if they **are** spying on us, telling the other men would risk them hearing about it.” Even just a piece of fur would be a godsend. They’d brought a pack of hunting dogs with them to track the beasts by scent, but the first time they’d tried it, the trail had ended at a cave housing a very surly bear. Whatever tricks the creatures were capable of, it included masking or altering their smell. But they couldn’t keep something like that up forever, and if the dogs could learn their true scent, it would only be a matter of time before he discovered their nest. “We’re going to do this with just the two of us, right now.”  
  
Bertran nodded. “Yes sir.” He stepped back outside the tent, and waited for Doval to follow.

The camp had seen better days. He was used to seeing men talking and laughing with each other, playing games and getting drunk. But everyone that was left sat alone, hunched over and nervous. Dark bags under the eyes told Doval that several of them hadn’t slept for at least twenty four hours, constantly on guard for another attack. These creatures’ vicious little pranks hadn’t killed anyone, or even hurt them too severely, but they’d proven quite effective at breaking his men’s morale. If he could find a genuine trail back to them, though, if they could **catch one** , that would change in a heartbeat.

Bertran led Doval through a winding route that circled around several times while keeping them a good distance from any of the men, and walked at a casual pace, as if they weren’t headed anywhere in particular. Doval matched his attitude, trying to give the impression that he was simply surveying the camp like usual.

After several minutes, the lieutenant gradually strayed from the perimeter, bringing them to a small copse about ten meters from the boundary. None of the men were anywhere near this side of the camp, which was no surprise; they must have all heard about Garau by now, and no one would be in any hurry to meet a similar fate. “It’s over here,” he said quietly, doing his best not to move his lips. “Between those three trees.” Doval nodded minutely.

As they drew closer, he caught sight of it himself: a small patch of white fur, hanging from a small branch protruding from a knee high bush. The beast it belonged to must have brushed it without realizing and scratched itself. His anticipation grew as Bertran glanced around surreptitiously before kneeling and retrieving it. The lieutenant sniffed it, then held it up for Doval to see. “I think it’s genuine,” he said. “Come here and look.”  
  
Doval stepped towards him eagerly. Finally, a single bit of luck in this damned rotten- his right foot came down on an ordinary patch of grass and went straight through it, as though there was no ground at all. He tried to pull back and right himself, but his balance was already off, and he pitched forward, hitting the ground and passing through it. He landed with a heavy thud a moment later on something not particularly soft. He looked around, confused and disoriented. What was… he was in a pit. A narrow dirt pit about ten feet deep.

He looked up and saw Bertran standing by the lip of it. “Another damn trap,” Doval hissed. Of **course** his lieutenant had managed to avoid it and he hadn’t. At least he didn’t feel like anything was broken, though the fall had loosened a few teeth. “Help me out of this fucking thing.”  
  
“I would, sir,” Bertran told him, “but I’m afraid I’m a bit busy with Dr Garau in the infirmary right now. I tried to make friends with a badger, you see.”

“What? What are you…” Doval trailed off as Bertran gave him an uncharacteristically wide grin.

“Poor Mr Badger went back to taking a nap,” Bertran said. That is, he opened his mouth and words came out. But the voice they belonged to was utterly unlike the stocky man’s. It was a young and cheerful feminine voice that sounded like its owner was trying very hard not to burst out laughing. “But I found some new friends for you too, **sir**. Have fuuuuuuuuun!” Bertran stuck out his tongue playfully, and then the image of him melted away like smoke, leaving faint peals of laughter in its wake.

He… that… Doval screamed in rage and tried to claw his way up the pit, but the sides of it were slick with something wet, and he slid back down. “Help!” he shouted instead, feeling like an idiot. “There’s a… a fucking pit over here! Someone help me get out!” He had little faith that anyone would actually show up anytime soon. Venturing outside of camp to address a call for help was exactly how both Malik and Faro had gotten themselves injured on separate occasions. Eventually someone would work up the courage to check his tent and see if he was in there, but not for a while. Doing something like that three days ago was why Rodrigo had a broken arm now, after all.

He sat down in a huff, still absolutely furious. With himself for falling for the ruse, with Bertran for getting incapacitated and giving the creature an opening to get to him, with Karakostas for putting them on this fool’s errand in the first place. And most of all- he felt a sharp pain on his right ankle, and looked down to see a black centipede nearly a foot long wrapped around his leg. He yelped and batted the disgusting thing away, but the damage was already done. Giant centipede bites weren’t lethal, but the creatures were sure as hell venomous. He imagined he could already feel his ankle starting to swell up, and he definitely wasn’t imagining the lingering pain.

There was another sharp pain on his back as a second centipede bit him, and he felt a third one slithering up his pant leg. He stood up and whirled around, trying to knock them all away, but he could see now that there were at least a dozen of them in the pit with him. “God dammit!” he screamed in a panic, stomping the ground to try and smash them, feeling a third and a fourth and a fifth bite. “Someone get the fuck over here right now!!”

He was furious with himself, with Bertran, with Karakostas, and most of all, most of all, most of all, with these **fucking** kitsune.

  * 



	2. Ch 1 – Inari’s Flame

“So he finally claws his way out of the pit and makes it back to camp, right?” Hanabi was telling Tomo. The two of them were seated at the kitchen table in her house, drinking tea and sharing the confectionery Tomo had bought on the way over. The white haired kitsune’s fingers were sticky with red bean paste, and she was casually licking it off as she continued her story. “Can barely walk, face swollen up with bites, and he won’t even tell the others what happened. Just stumbles into the barracks and collapses onto his bed. Passes out before he hits the sheets. And theeeeen…” She grinned and sipped more of her tea.

Her friend gasped slightly. Tomo was a brown haired, bespectacled girl the same age as Hanabi, though she was more than a full head taller. If she ever stood up straight she’d be one of the tallest foxes in the village, but she had a mousy nature that belied her height, and tended to shrink no matter the occasion. “No, you didn’t!”

Hanabi’s grin widened. “Even **more** centipedes!” She collapsed into a fit of giggles, her white tails bobbing happily, and Tomo joined her. “The guy screamed so loud when he woke up that I thought he was gonna burst something!”

It was late afternoon in the village, and the setting sun shone in brightly through the windows, illuminating the dust motes in the air as the two girls laughed themselves silly. The scent of summer had already been replaced by autumn, but the kitchen was as warm and cozy as ever. When Hanabi had been born, a little more than one hundred and twenty years ago, the house had been heated with a bulky coal furnace that complained loudly every night, but the villagers did their best to keep up with the technology of the times, and the electric furnace keeping the young fox warm now was much smaller and quieter. Everything else was similarly modernized, and a visitor would have seen nothing to distinguish the interior from any other house in Japan.

Except for the fox ears and tails of its inhabitants, of course. Hiding them with foxfire was one of the first tricks every kitsune learned growing up, but Hanabi could count the number of times she’d had to do that on the fingers of one hand. The village of Hanei was so secluded that they might as well have been living on the moon, and there was no need to hide their forms here. Poor Gen, who supervised bringing items in and out of the village, was the only one who walked around concealed, and that was only because the absentminded man worried that he’d forget to do so in the outside world if he didn’t make a regular habit of it.

“Goddess, Hanabi, I don’t know how you can even do all that stuff!” Tomo said when the laughter had subsided a few minutes later. “Aren’t you scared of them catching you?” She blushed slightly, the tips of her furry ears twitching. “I’ve heard… stories… about what humans do to foxes they catch.”

Hanabi snorted. “What, those guys? Please! They’re all slow, stupid, can’t see, can’t smell… I’m in more danger of slipping in the shower and cracking my head open than getting caught by dummies like them.”

There wasn’t actually any need to go venturing out to ward off the hunters that came looking for them, even military outfits like the one she’d been playing with for the last week. The village was concealed within a massive and intricate set of illusions that would throw off any intruders trying to find it, messing with their sense of direction and sending them down false avenues. In her century and more of life, no one had ever managed to get closer than two miles from the village outskirts.

But that was so **boring**. The white fox’s tails twitched eagerly. “I should take you out with me next time! You’ll see what I mean. There’s nothing scary about it at all, I promise!”

She resisted adding that if Tomo was worried about unwanted male attention, just staying in the village wouldn’t be enough. Her friend was gorgeous, with long silky brown hair and a soft, shy face. And even if she shaved herself bald and put on a kabuki mask, her height wasn’t the only place where Tomo had developed far above average. Her brother Tobi was probably the only man in the village who didn’t drool at the sight of her curves, and it wasn’t just men interested in them.

Hanabi, on the other hand, well, she wouldn’t call herself ugly, but she was shorter than average and less… developed than average. She loved Tomo, but it was hard to avoid comparing herself to her sometimes. And of course, even if she was the bustiest girl in the entire village, it wouldn’t do much for her romantic prospects. Not with this white fur of hers.

From Tomo’s expression, she’d just invited the girl to walk into a grain thresher. “Go **outside** Hanei?” Her friend shuddered. “But I’ve never… everyone says it’s not safe out there. That’s why we have to hide ourselves.”

Hanabi sighed. “Tomo, what did you do yesterday?”

“Restitched some clothing,” the brown fox said promptly. They imported most of their clothes, but humans rarely made outfits that could accommodate tails, so they had to be modified after they were brought in. Tomo wasn’t the only tailor, but with over five hundred kitsune to clothe, there was always more work to do.

“And what did you do last week?”

“Restitched some more clothes.”

“And all of last year?”

Tomo hesitated. “The same thing…”

“The last ten years?”

“It’s important work!” her friend said defensively. “And they’re always getting torn up, and humans keep changing their styles, and everyone wants the newest ones…”

“I know, I know,” Hanabi said, holding up her hands. “That’s not what I mean. We’ve lived nearly two entire human lifetimes by now, and we’ve spent all of it here, in the same place, with the same people, doing the same things over and over and over.” She groaned and squirmed restlessly in her seat. “Just saying it out loud makes me want to scream! Don’t you ever want to try something different and exciting? Something far, far away from here?”

“I like our village, ” Tomo said earnestly. “I like the people in it, and I like getting to help them. I don’t mind if what I do isn’t exciting. It’s a good life.”

“I like everyone too,” Hanabi said, not mentioning that most of them didn’t like **her**. “But I don’t want to keep being stuck here in a loop for decade after decade. I wanna see stuff, and do stuff, and meet new people. Have some excitement in my life! I want to **live** , Tomo, not just be alive.”

“You’ll be neither if you keep wandering blindly into danger like a newborn kit,” said a wry voice behind them. Tomo flinched at the unexpected sound, and her cup of tea rattled against the table.

“Hi Dad,” Hanabi said brightly, twisting around to turn and look at her father. “You’re home early.”

Nobu was a short, dark haired man with gray fur and a thick mustache, and the scowl on his face didn’t lessen at the sight of her smile, but there was a twinkle in his eyes as he looked back at his daughter. “Your father and I have a lunch date today,” he said. “You’d know all about it if you’d been home with us last night instead of out daring the universe to teach you a lesson in humility.”

Hanabi stuck her tongue out at him. “Wrong way around, Dad. I’m the one doing the teaching. There’s a whole bunch of guys out there who now know why sane folk don’t try to bother foxes.”

“I’d hardly call you an expert in sane folk right now,” Nobu told her. “It’s one thing to go play tricks on a stray hunter or two, give them a little scare and a story to tell. But those weren’t hunters out there, Hanabi, they were troops. You make one mistake, just one, and you’ll be lucky if all they do is slit your throat and kill you.” Tomo shivered, her eyes wide.

A pair of thin arms wrapped around Nobu’s torso from behind. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, dear,” Kamio said softly, “and I agree with you, really, but maybe let’s not talk about our daughter getting her throat slit?” The blond man kissed the side of his husband’s neck. “Hmm?”

Nobu’s face went slightly red and he coughed. “Sorry, I just…”

“Oh, I know, ” Kamio told him dryly, eyeing Hanabi. He was slender, with a boyish face that belied the fact that he was nearly twice his husband’s age. “Believe me, I know.”

“I’m being safe,” Hanabi insisted, trying not to wilt under her father’s gaze. Kamio was always very soft spoken, never displaying anger or raising his voice. He didn’t have to. “I stay cloaked all the time, and I use proxies for everything, just like you taught me.” With an effort of will, she hid herself. Becoming completely invisible was impossible, but by masking sight, sound, and smell, she became little more than a ripple in the air. Somebody who knew she was there and had sharp senses would be able to spot her, but to everyone else, she was a ghost. At the same time, she created a convincing replica of herself a few feet away. “See?” the proxy said, twirling in place. Hanabi quickly shifted its appearance to Nobu, Bertran, Tomo, and then back to herself. “Untouchable and untraceable. Perfectly safe.”

“Mmm hmm,” Kamio said, not sounding at all convinced. “So you’ve learned how to hide your heat, then?”

“My heat?” Hanabi asked incredulously,as she released the cloak and let her proxy fade away. She’d never heard of anyone doing something like that before. “It’s not like I’m getting up close to them. They’re not going to notice a little body heat.”

“Oh really? And if they have infrared goggles?”

“If they did, they already would have used them,” the girl protested. “I haven’t seen anything like that in their camp.”

“I didn’t ask you if they’d used goggles,” Kamio told her. “I asked what you would do about them. And while you’re at it, when was the last time you tried cloaking yourself in a snowstorm without the falling snow giving away your position? What’s your plan if you unexpectedly run out of foxfire? And if you did get captured, what are the four tenets every prisoner should adhere to? When was the last time you practiced slipping free from knots? Have you **ever** practiced slipping free from knots?”

“I, um…” Hanabi said weakly. “I… I’d figure something out.”

“Oh, then I guess we don’t have to worry about her after all,” Kamio told Nobu. “Our daughter will ‘figure something out’. Say, do you recall the last time she tried to do that with the stove? When she decided to ‘figure out’ flambé cooking?” Hanabi studiously avoided glancing up at the soot mark on the ceiling.

“I do,” Nobu said slowly. “I also remember the night after that, when she tried again and the three of us had a wonderful dinner.” Hanabi nodded proudly.

“You’re not seriously taking her side now, are you?” Kamio asked.

His husband sighed. “No, just the side of realism. When was the last time we told Hanabi not to do something and she actually listened?”

“Hey, I listen!” the white haired girl protested. “I just don’t blindly do what I’m told. Because I’m not a child anymore, no matter how much you keep wanting to treat me as one.” She was young, but even by kitsune standards, she’d been an adult for decades already. If she was human, she’d be in her early twenties right now, and looking ahead to a bright future, instead of staring down the barrel of centuries of monotony.

Both of her parents ignored her. “You have a point,” mused Kamio. “So what are you suggesting?”

“That we can either sit around waiting for inevitable disaster…’ said Nobu. “Or… we can try to teach her better.” He coughed. “ **You** can try to teach her better. We both know I couldn’t foxfire my way out of a paper bag.”

Hanabi’s ears perked up and her tails swished against the floor. **Teach** her? “Yes!” she agreed eagerly. “That one. Let’s do that one!” Her father Kamio had fought in the War seven hundred years ago, and she knew he’d picked up skills back then that went far beyond the standard foxfire techniques she’d been taught, but he never liked to talk about any of it. She’d been wanting to learn them from him all her life.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Kamio told Nobu. “If we’re really going to encourage her like this – and I haven’t agreed to that yet – we do it together.”

“But I can’t-“

Kamio put a finger on his lips to quiet him. “I teach her how to stay out of trouble, you teach her what to do when trouble finds her anyway.”

A small smile appeared on Nobu’s face. “I thought you didn’t want me doing that sort of thing anymore. I seem to remember the words ‘reckless’ and ‘endangerment’ being tossed around.”

“And if our daughter decides it’s too much for her and would rather swear to never leave the village and pull foolish stunts again, then our problem will have solved itself.” He finally looked back at Hanabi. “That’s the only way I’ll agree to this. You learn from both of us or neither, and if you give up halfway through, no more outside trips. Not without my sister’s express permission, anyway.”

Hanabi tried not to flinch at the mention of her aunt. Captain Ichika was in charge of village security, coordinating the shifts that maintained the foxfire illusions and leading the scouts that dealt with would-be intruders directly. The two of them had been clashing for decades; Ichika hated the idea of someone not under her command going out and doing what should be a scout’s job, and Hanabi hated all the rules and regulations that the woman insisted on for her people. Whenever she ventured out, she was far more worried about being noticed by her aunt and given a long lecture than she was about anything the humans might try.

“Are you still certain you want lessons?” Kamio asked, his quirked lips telling her that he’d noticed her reaction.

“Of course!” Hanabi said. She wasn’t sure how much if anything Nobu could teach her, but it would be a small price to pay for Kamio’s training.

Kamio patted his husband on the back and separated from him. “Alright then, she’s all yours for now.” He took the seat next to Tomo, who was still silently watching the proceedings. “They’re going to be a bit, dear, but you’re welcome to wait here as long as you like. How are your parents doing these days? Tsukasa still working on that mural of hers?” He poured her a fresh cup of tea.

The scent of the tea reminded Hanabi of her own still half full cup resting on the table, and she reached for it, only to yelp as one of Nobu’s tails slapped her hand away. “That hurt!” she accused, rubbing her stinging fingers. “I just wanted to finish mine before we got started.”

“We’ve already started,” her father said. “But go ahead and have your tea.” He beckoned her to take it.

Hanabi reached for the cup, and wasn’t surprised when his tail blocked her again. This time she avoided another painful slap, but came away empty handed. “This is the lesson?” she asked skeptically. Nobu said nothing, but he wore a small smile now.

The white fox sighed. “Dad, this is silly. I’m not going to-” She lunged for the cup with both hands this time, but Nobu was ready for her, and pulled it away with another tail. He let it hang in the air between them, the tip of his tail curled lightly around it.

Hanabi grinned as she crouched and sprang for it. Nobu’s tail whipped back and forth, nimbly avoiding her grasping hands without the man himself taking a single step. She circled around him, chasing the bobbing teacup as his tail went this way and that. It always remained mere inches from her grasp, so frustratingly close that she knew it was a deliberate act on his part.

Her own tails swished happily as she played her father’s game. Hanabi had always known he was better at using his tails than most kitsune, but she hadn’t realized until now how much better. “Our tails are not decorations,” Nobu told his daughter calmly as he continued easily evading her. “They aren’t pillows or blankets or bedding. They are soft, warm, and fuzzy, yes. But they are also useful.”

Taking a page from his book, Hanabi snapped her own tails forward. She had nowhere near enough manual dexterity to hold the cup with one as he was doing, but if she could just knock it out of his hands, that might be enough. Nobu nodded in approval and tossed the cup to the side to evade her, just as quickly catching it with a second tail. He began passing it from tail to tail, avoiding all her attempts to reach it.

Minutes passed as she doggedly kept at it, though it was clear she was outmatched. Kamio and Tomo both watched nearby as father and daughter enjoyed themselves, until Hanabi began to slow down, red faced and puffing for breath. “As limbs,” Nobu said, “they’re more dexterous than arms, longer, able to bend at multiple spots. Hands are still better for fine motor control, but a kitsune who doesn’t make full use of their tails is voluntarily crippling themselves.” His tail whipped around a final time and left the cup spinning slightly in place on the table. Hanabi glanced inside and saw he hadn’t even spilled any of the tea.

Nobu gestured for her to take it, and didn’t stop her this time. It had cooled some, but still possessed a satisfying warmth as she downed it. “That was… fun…” she said, still panting lightly from the effort. “You can teach me to do that?”

Her father nodded. “Any kitsune can learn, as long as they put in the time and effort. They need to be trained and exercised like any other limb.”

They certainly felt exercised. Hanabi couldn’t remember the last time she’d moved them around as much, and they drooped tiredly now, tingling with a pleasant soreness. The game had been fun, but she was in no hurry to use them again any time soon. Her kitsune regeneration couldn’t do much when it came to sore muscles. They’d recover faster than a human’s, but the body still had to do much of the repair work naturally in order for the muscles to strengthen.

Despite her exhaustion and aching tails, Hanabi was practically bouncing in place as she turned to Kamio. “And now it’s your turn to teach me, right?”

“Oh honey,” Kamio said sympathetically, though the corners of his mouth twitched up. “You really have no idea what you agreed to, do you?”

“That wasn’t the lesson,” Nobu told her. “That was just the demonstration. **Now** we start the lesson proper…”

“You can’t be serious, right?” Hanabi asked weakly a few minutes later.

“You know, that’s exactly what I said when your father tried to teach me,” Kamio told her, no longer able to hide his smile. Even Tomo was fighting not to giggle. “Our first and **last** lesson.”

“Don’t listen to him,” said Nobu. “He just cared too much about his appearance to commit to it. Not like you, Flower.”

“And I… don’t care about appearance?” Hanabi asked. She hadn’t looked at herself in the mirror yet, but she was in no hurry to. When her father had told her to put her arms behind her back and clasp her hands together, she hadn’t thought about it too hard. She’d just thought it was going to be an exercise in balance or something, maybe practice picking things up with her tails. She definitely hadn’t anticipated him producing a roll of duct tape from beneath the sink and using it to bind her arms in place. He’d made sure it was comfortable, but still… she felt ridiculous. “Wait, wait, wait. Are you expecting me to leave the house like this? Dad, I promise to never ask why you’re so good at duct tape bondage if you don’t make me do this.”

“Nobody is **making** you do anything, Flower,” Kamio reminded her. “You can stop aaaaanytime you want. No more lessons, no more dangerous outings. What do you say?”

Hanabi gritted her teeth. “You’re not getting out of this that easily, Dad.” There was no way she was going to let this deter her from getting a lesson with him. “And can’t I just promise not to use my hands instead of doing this?”

“It’s only for the first few months,” Nobu told her. “Until your body gets used to it. You’re going to break some plates and glasses while you adjust, but we can always get more, and you’ll adjust faster than you think. When your body can’t rely on arms and legs anymore, it quickly learns to make do with tails.”

“And **legs**?” Hanabi asked. “You’re not… seriously…” She quieted down while Kamio nearly died laughing.

“That’s after the first two weeks,” Nobu told her, ignoring his husband. “And I promise, a few laps around the village and you’ll have no trouble walking on your tails. But for now…” he clapped his hands. “Why don’t you help me make dinner? And be sure to fetch a mop and broom first.”

* * *

“No more running away, Dad,” Hanabi said. “I’ve jumped through every last hoop; are you going to teach me or not?”

The mop and broom had certainly been necessary, but dinner had eventually been prepared and eaten. Very slowly eaten. Nobu didn’t tell her whose idea it had been to have soup for dinner, but Kamio’s smile had been answer enough. Tomo had actually had a harder time of it than Hanabi. The poor girl had tried very hard not to laugh at the white fox’s attempts to eat, until Hanabi had given up and finally started laughing at herself. That had opened the floodgates, and soon both girls were practically rolling on the floor, giggling.

By the time the meal was over, the sun had long since set, and it was time for Tomo to head home before her family started to worry. “You’re already improving,” she had told Hanabi before departing. “Really! You were much better at eating by the end. You’ll be an expert soon, I’m sure of it.”

“You bet I will,” Hanabi had agreed cheerfully. She wasn’t quite as certain as she sounded, but she appreciated her friend’s attempt to encourage her. “I’m gonna master this in no time!” Tomo had hugged her, a gesture which Hanabi had awkwardly returned with her tails, and then the girl had left, leaving just Hanabi and her parents now. One of whom had a promise to keep.

Kamio was sitting in a recliner in the living room, his feet propped up as he read a thick tome. He looked up at her. “Are you sure you don’t have to, I don’t know, balance a treat on your nose first? I wouldn’t want to interfere with your **regimen**.”

“ **Dad**!”

“She **did** do everything,” Nobu pointed out from the kitchen. Thankfully he’d volunteered to clean up dinner himself, though Hanabi suspected it might have been less an act of charity and more an attempt to preserve the few remaining glasses. “Even with **someone** trying to make her feel foolish for doing so.”

Kamio sighed. “You’re right, you’re right,” he said, putting the book down and raising his hands in defeat. “Let’s go for a walk.”

“Outside?” Hanabi asked doubtfully, eying the door. She knew she was going to have to let the other villagers see her like this eventually, but she was in no hurry.

“I’ll give you a coat,” Kamio said. “Just don’t jostle it too much and no one will notice that your hands aren’t where they should be. Come on.”

There was a definite chill to the air when they stepped outside, and Hanabi was grateful for the coat. “Where are we going?” she asked her father.

  
Kamio nodded towards the hill at the center of the village. It wasn’t nearly as tall as many of the trees in the forest, but it towered over the buildings. A gently sloping path made a lazy spiral up to the summit. “The temple.” He said nothing further as they walked, and Hanabi didn’t try to pry. She’d endured a lot getting him to this point, and she wasn’t going to screw it up now.

The interiors of the village buildings kept up with modern times, but their exteriors had retained a more traditional Japanese design that was very nearly unchanged from when Hanabi had been born a century ago. The rest of the village followed a similarly old fashioned aesthetic. There were no paved roads to be found, only paths of dirt and stone that were lined with trees, their branches already beginning to grow bare in preparation for winter. A slow moving stream cut straight through the village, curving around the temple hill. It was a peaceful, quiet, and supremely boring place.

The village of Hanei had existed for more than a millennia as the largest known community of kitsune in the world. It was hidden not only by foxfire, but by the thick forest of Shirakami Sanchi, five hundred square miles of protected wilderness in northern Japan. Most of its families had been here for generations, but the occasional newcomer showed up, driven here by fear of the Paradisium or other threats. Only a fellow fox could have any hope of even noticing the protective wards, but none who found the place were ever turned away.

Lanterns hung from the trees, providing pools of lights as the two of them walked. Kitsune had inherited some nocturnal tendencies from their animal brethren, so though it was getting late, they passed more than a few neighbors on the journey. Their greetings were amiable, but the girl sensed the reservation in them when they saw the color of her fur and realized who she was. It wasn’t that the other kitsune were ever mean to her because of her fur. They were polite, even friendly, but there was always a distance between her and them. A barrier that stopped her from ever truly belonging. White furred foxes only appeared once every few centuries, and the last one had made quite an impression.

Nobody wanted to share the full details with Hanabi, but she’d picked up bit and pieces. She knew that the woman had been seen as a troublemaker in her youth. She knew that she’d fought hard in the War and been respected for her accomplishments there, loved even. But then she’d turned against Inari Herself, corrupting her own foxfire and somehow twisting it into a weapon of destruction. She hadn’t been alone either, inspiring an entire band of followers into joining her rebellion. In the end, all of them had been cursed and cast out for their crimes, becoming the fearsome demons known as nogitsune.

That was the legacy of her white fur, and she was conscious of it every time she interacted with the others, especially since she’d spent her childhood acting out and generally being a menace before she’d learned about her heritage. How many people had thought about that cursed white fox every time Hanabi had caused trouble? How many people had ever wondered if she might grow up to be another Yuki? She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to know. What she did know was that when they were nice to her, it was the same sort of way you’d act nice to someone pointing a gun at you. It wasn’t genuine affection behind their actions, it was fear of her. Well placed fear, maybe.

Just one more reason to enjoy going out alone into the woods.

It wasn’t a long trip, but it seemed to take forever for Hanabi, whose anticipation grew with every step. For decades she’d been trying to convince her father to teach her, and now it was finally happening. She’d happily let Nobu truss her up like a turkey and hang her outside the house every day if it meant learning all of Kamio’s secrets.

The temple was a large stone building that looked like it had sat there since the dawn of time. As far as Hanabi knew, it had. She’d heard it had already been ancient when the village was founded many centuries ago. Its great doors stood open, welcoming anyone who wished to visit. The foyer beyond was mostly bare, save for the large brazier at its center. It was shaped like a large metal bowl nearly ten feet across, and its sides were adorned with countless glyphs and runes celebrating kitsune history. Hanabi didn’t consider herself a particularly religious person, but the sight of its flame tamped down her giddiness, and she entered the temple with something approaching solemnity. Their feet padded silently across the stone floor as Kamio led her right up to the brazier, close enough to feel its heat on her face.

Kamio laid a hand on the underside of the brazier, soaking in its warmth. Save for Megumi, the priestess who lived here and maintained the grounds, Hanabi had never seen anyone touch it before, and there was an intimacy to the gesture that even the priestess never displayed. “Do you know what foxfire is, Hanabi?” he asked. Even though she’d expected him to talk, and his tone was quiet, the sudden break in the silence still made the white haired girl jump.

“I-it’s magic that lets you create illusions,” Hanabi said, trying to shake off her timidity.

Her father didn’t look at her as he shook his head, his hand absently stroking the metal. “No, it’s not magic, and it doesn’t create illusions. It **creates**.”

“I don’t understand,” she said truthfully.

“Kitsune aren’t mortal like the humans are,” he said slowly, as though still working out the words. “But we’re not divine beings like Inari either. We’re something in between, straddling both worlds: mortal frames with a spark of Her divinity inside. Foxfire is more than just some magic power for performing tricks, Flower. It’s a part of our soul. And when our mortal frames die…”

Hanabi couldn’t help looking at the fire dancing inside the brazier. Inari’s Flame. It had been burning for as long as kitsune had lived here, fed regularly by Megumi and whatever priests and priestesses had come before her. It was said to have originated from a piece of Inari’s own foxfire, but that wasn’t what made Hanabi feel a sense of reverence when she saw it. Kitsune didn’t die often in the village, but when they did, this was their final resting place. “We become foxfire,” she said softly.

Kamio nodded. “We become foxfire, and return to Her side in the lands beyond. That’s why we put our empty shells in here, so that they can mix with Inari’s Flame and become foxfire themselves. A small piece of every past kitsune lives on within Her fire.” He touched the brazier again, and this time Hanabi understood the gesture, and why there were tears in his eyes as he did it: he was greeting old friends.

“So… when I use foxfire, I’m using my soul?” Hanabi asked.

“Part of your soul,” he corrected. “Think of it like…” He thought for a few moments before going on. “Imagine your soul was the river outside, and you wanted to use some of its water for…” He waved his free hand idly. “Something, somewhere. You can’t pick up the river itself and take it with you, but you **can** take a cup and fill it in the stream. Its size is nothing compared to the source, but now you have a piece of the river that you can bring anywhere and use for anything. And when the cup runs dry, you can always return to the river and fill it again.” He frowned. “It’s not a perfect analogy – using foxfire doesn’t deplete your soul anymore than going for a run depletes your muscles – but I’m not the wordsmith of the family. I’m sure Nobu could come up with a much fancier explanation.”

“No, I think I get it,” Hanabi said. “It’s like if you had a computer where 99% of the hard drive is unusable because it’s full of system files you can’t do anything with, but you’ve still got that 1% of free space you can mess around with and reuse over and over.”

“I have no idea what any of that means, but sure,” Kamio said. “Whatever works for you.”

The white fox rolled her eyes. “Both of us were alive before computers even existed, Dad. You don’t have an excuse to be tech illiterate if I’m not.”

“There’s a difference between being a mere century old,” Kamio said dryly, “and already being ancient when electric lights were a newfangled invention. The best part of living to be my age is getting to be set in my ways and never having to learn anything new. But if you really want, I’ll do my best to forget all of this crusty old knowledge of mine and replace it with facts about modems and computer monitors and… and mice. Who needs to know anything about foxfire when they can learn so many important facts about mice instead?”

“Fine, be that way,” Hanabi told him. “Just hurry up and pass all that ancient wisdom on before your brain goes stale from old age. Like what you meant when you said that foxfire **creates**.” She waggled her fingers as she said the words.

“I’m getting to it. Our foxfire, our souls, are divine in nature. They come from the same power the gods used to create all life as we know it.”

“Wait, so we can create living things?” Hanabi asked eagerly.

“No,” her father said, cutting short her excitement. “The gods could, but we don’t have the skill or the power to make anything with life or permanence. The things we create are frail and lifeless, all shape and no substance.”

Hanabi nodded her head, finally understanding what he was getting at it. “Illusions.”

“That’s what we call them, yes. But it’s misleading to think of them that way.” He raised his hand, and a miniature recreation of Inari’s Flame appeared in his palm. “Foxfire lends itself to deception and trickery, but that’s not the root of its power. It’s a tool of creation, and it can be used for so much more.” He offered the flame to her, gesturing her to take it.

She reached for it hesitantly with one of her tails. It was only an illusion, but she could feel heat emanating from it, just like the real one. Kamio gestured again for to take it, so she wrapped her tail around the tiny flame… and then yelped in pain and drew it back. “That hurt!” she said, looking at the scorch mark on her fur. “It actually burned me!”

“Yes,” Kamio said flatly. “Because that’s what happens when you play with fire. Our foxfire isn’t a toy, Hanabi. It’s a tool, and it’s a weapon, and it’s dangerous. Making empty shadows is usually harmless enough, but if you try to use it for more, it’s easy to get hurt, or to hurt the ones around you. That’s why we don’t make a habit of teaching it.” He nodded at the burn. It was already fading, but it still stung, and would for a while. “Call that an object lesson, and be grateful that the knowledge came so cheaply. During the War, many good people paid far heavier prices to learn it.”

If he’d pulled that trick anywhere else, Hanabi would’ve thought he was just trying to scare her and get out of doing any more lessons. But she saw the way his eyes drifted to the brazier as he spoke, and heard the grief hidden behind his calm voice. This was dredging up old painful memories that had nothing to do with her. She sighed. “Dad, you… you don’t have to teach me, okay?” All the secrets in the world weren’t worth the pain this was causing him. “I can just keep using foxfire the way I’ve been doing it, and I… I won’t go out in the forest anymore.”

“No,” said Kamio, shaking his head, “Nobu was right. Like usual. You won’t be able to spend your whole life in comfort and safety, no matter how hard your father and I wish otherwise. Whether you go looking for trouble or not, it **will** find you someday, and I won’t have you getting hurt because I didn’t teach you how to protect yourself. Now come with me. I brought you here to show you something.”

He led her deeper into the temple, careful not to disturb Megumi in her sleeping quarters. “Do you know why our ancestors built the village around this place?” he asked her as they walked.

“To be close to Inari’s Flame, right?” Hanabi said.

Her father shook his head. “No, this was not where the Flame originally resided. Our people brought it here with them when they came.” He stopped in the middle of one of the hallways, next to a completely unremarkable stretch of the wall. “The village exists because of what’s behind these doors.” He looked at her critically. “We are here to **protect** what’s behind these doors. That has been our clan’s purpose since we first stepped foot here.”

Hanabi didn’t know what could possibly need that kind of protection, and she wasn’t certain that she wanted to. But her curiosity won over her caution, as it always did. “May I see it?” she asked.

“If you can open the doors,” the blond man said cryptically, and stepped aside to let her try. Hanabi looked at the blank wall suspiciously. She was pretty good at reading foxfire, but she couldn’t sense any of it there. She could almost think that her father had made a mistake and brought her to the wrong place. Hanabi tried prodding and pushing the wall with her tails for any clues, even just the thin cracks that would indicate where the door would open once unlocked, but wasn’t surprised when she had no luck. Undeterred, she expanded her search to look for any kind of secret mechanism nearby, a hidden switch or wall panel, but turned up nothing.

“You need to use foxfire to open the way,” she said eventually. “The real kind of foxfire, not just illusions. Don’t you?”

“That’s right,” her father said, sounding pleased with her. “Unless you do it right, it would be easier to pick this entire temple up with one hand that it would be to open these doors. Megumi binds them with fresh wards every day, and those of us who can wield true foxfire come by every so often to re-apply more of our own.” He placed his hands on the wall, and his palms began to glow with a warm red light that traveled up his fingers and then spread out into the stone.

For just a few moments, Hanabi glimpsed the wards he was talking about. They were made of the same red light and went up and down the entire length of the hallway, even extending to the floor and ceiling. She couldn’t see where they ended, and she had a sneaking suspicion that they filled the temple’s entire interior from front to back. They covered the seemingly bare surfaces like a thick cocoon, layered on top of each other a hundred times over. Kamio’s foxfire sank into them, and there was an almost imperceptible increase to their glow. And then they all vanished.

Hanabi stretched a tail out where some of them had been, but she still felt nothing. “Why can’t I sense them?” she asked.

Kamio smiled. “We **are** kitsune, Flower. Just because we can use foxfire for more than deception doesn’t mean we have to go about leaving things in plain sight. No need to make it easy.”

“So what **is** in there?”

Her father hesitated. “We’ll save that for another day. For tonight, I just wanted you to know that this place exists. Once you’ve learned enough, you’ll share the responsibility for protecting it.”

Hanabi and responsibility didn’t get along very well, and the idea of spending the rest of her life trapped here guarding some mystery box was hardly an appealing one, but she kept her doubts to herself for now. She trailed after her father as he began heading home, thinking about everything he’d told her. As she did, a terrible thought struck her. “Dad?” she asked. She thought she already knew the answer, but she hoped she was wrong. “All this stuff… was this something that the nogitsune used back then? Something that Yuki used?”

Kamio didn’t turn to look back at her when he answered, his voice soft and heavy. “Like I said before, Flower. Many good people paid dearly learning the dangers of wielding foxfire unwisely. But I promise I won’t let you end up like they did. She wasn’t you, and you aren’t her.”

Hanabi wished she could believe him.


	3. Ch 3 - Lessons Learned

“Ughhhh, this is too harrrrrrd,” Hanabi whined dejectedly.

“You can stop anytime you want,” said Kamio, unaffected by his daughter’s misery. He was sitting on a chair he’d brought out of the house and set on their lawn, making his way through one of his favorite books. Though it was early in the day, the lunch Nobu had prepared for him was already on his lap and half finished. Kamio selected another piece of jerky and turned the page without bothering to glance up at Hanabi.

“And you’re just going to sit there?” she accused. “You’re supposed to be teaching me, right? Don’t you have, like, some wax on wax off stuff to impart?”

  
Kamio cocked his head. “If my daughter wants to spend some time cleaning up the house, I’m certainly not going to complain, but I thought you wanted to do training today, didn’t you?”

Hanabi sighed. “Sorry, I forgot that you only get references when they’re from books older than I am.”

After more than a week, the white fox still wasn’t convinced that Nobu’s training regimen wasn’t just an elaborate prank. Life without the use of her hands was hard. She’d already known that would be the case, but... life without the use of her hands was **hard**. She couldn’t do anything at all without being reminded of their loss. Even sleep was no escape; the ropes her father had replaced the duct tape with were soft and left her limbs feeling comfortable even after hours in the same configuration, but it was still too awkward to try and sleep on her side or back. She’d had to quickly get used to sleeping on her stomach. Her only moments of freedom now were the few minutes each evening where she was allowed to remove the ropes, and that was hardly relaxing since she had to spend the entire time exercising her limbs to prevent atrophy.

If her other circumstances were different, maybe it wouldn’t have been so difficult. There were enough kitsune preparing for this year’s harvest that she didn’t need to assist like she usually did in the fall. Hanabi could have just curled up somewhere with a good book, much like Kamio was doing right now, and have no greater task for her tails than turning pages. But Nobu wasn’t her only teacher right now, nor her most difficult.

“Explain it to me again,” the white haired girl requested.

“I can try, Flower, but there is no special trick to generating heat with your foxfire. You just sort of...” Kamio thrust one arm out. “Put some oomph into it.” She gave him a bemused look, and he returned it with a sheepish and slightly defensive one. “Let the record show I never claimed to be a good teacher. There was more than one reason I hadn’t tried giving anyone lessons before.”

Hanabi raised one of her tails. Goddess, they were sore. Her overworked muscles ached more every morning. But she ignored the pain and concentrated on calling her foxfire. It appeared as a small flame on the tip of her tail, barely large enough to be visible. During her first attempts she’d made great big bonfires, but thanks to failure after failure she’d grown more economical with her use of the power.

Kamio had told her to start with using her foxfire to create real fire. The two of them were similar enough that it was **supposed** to be the easiest thing to create, except that after ten days of trying and dozens of attempts she was still getting nowhere with it. The tiny flame danced like the real thing, but she could already tell that it lacked substance. Hanabi focused her attention on it, trying to will it into existence. Just needed to put some oomph into it. How hard could that be? She was focused, she was determined, she was ready to jump in and master this thing if it would just... would just...

“Hey Beebee, wanna take a walk with us down to the fields?” Sakura called out. The young kitsune and her friend Rei were walking by the house, pushing a cart laden with water, food, and other supplies that would be distributed to everyone working out there right now.

“Yespleasethankyou!” Hanabi blurted. She glanced guiltily at her father. “I mean, if that’s okay with you, right?”

“You sure?” Kamio asked mildly, turning to the next page of his book without even glancing up at her. “I feel like I’m really finding my groove as a teacher.” She stuck her tongue out at him and hurried away to join the two girls.

“How much longer do you have to wear that stuff anyway?” Sakura asked after Hanabi caught up to her. The girl was a couple decades younger than Hanabi, just shy of her centennial and barely into adulthood. Her short, curly hair was brown originally, but she’d dyed it a bright bubblegum pink to match her name. She was one of the most fashion and beauty conscious kitsune in the village, and already owned more clothes than many women several times her age. Even now, on a nondescript day in the village, Hanabi was certain that her entire outfit - a blue and white ensemble that covered barely more skin than a bathing suit - was brand new, and half of it would probably never be worn again. Sakura’s gray tails bobbed happily behind her as she hummed random snatches of music.

“Months at least. And Dad says it can take years to **really** get anywhere.” By now, the entire village was aware of Nobu’s dexterity lessons. Hanabi had endured a lot of good natured and occasionally crude jokes for the first few days, but most people seemed to have gotten it out of their systems by now. Most.

“I think it looks very beautiful,” Rei said softly. “It’s impressive artistry.” Sakura’s bright colors made her friend’s hair look even darker as it fell to her lower back in a straight wave. She was the same age as Sakura, but carried herself with a maturity of a kitsune centuries older. Her mother Kaede had cared for the town as its mayor for nearly a quarter of a millennium now, and before that had been her grandmother, making her family the closest the village had to anything like nobility. Hanabi had never seen any kind of snobbery from the girl though. It was more like she held herself to a higher standard than those around her, already possessing a sense of responsibility for the role she might someday inherit. Hanabi could have used a little of that dedication herself.

“I mean, I don’t **not** like the lessons,” Hanabi admitted. “Especially after I broke enough stuff that I stopped worrying about it.” It helped that Nobu was genuinely engaged in helping her learn, unlike her other father. For the first few lessons, she’d thought that Kamio’s attitude was just a way of testing her, seeing if she was truly determined to learn. But no, that was just how he was. He’d agreed to teach her, even claimed he wanted to, but he clearly didn’t enjoy it. Whatever. She was going to learn it all anyway, even if she had to pry every nugget of wisdom out one at at time.

“Maybe you should go see if her dad will tie **you** up too,” Sakura teased Rei. “He might even teach you some tail tricks while he’s at it.”

The dark haired girl blushed slightly. “That is inappropriate,” she scolded, though she wore a smile. “Even if he wasn’t a married man, and Hanabi’s father, I’m far too young for him. And as I’ve told you many times now, my interest in Nobu is nothing romantic. I just think he’s…”

“The greatest writer of his generation!” Sakura declared melodramatically, flinging her arm over her eyes. “A true genius of the page, a maestro of ink and parchment!” Rei put her hands over her ears and frowned while the pink haired girl continued expounding the virtues of her friend’s favorite author, but soon Sakura broke down into laughter and the other two quickly followed suit.

The three girls continued happily chatting as they made their way to the fields. Hanabi felt much more comfortable around girls like Sakura and Rei than she did the older foxes. They’d grown up associating white fur with the slightly older girl who’d played with them for years, not with the wicked white fox Yuki. Things weren’t perfect, but Hanabi felt like she could consider them friends alongside Tomo.

It wasn’t a long walk, but each step made Hanabi more grateful that her trip to the fields was only going to be a quick visit. The heat right now was more appropriate for mid summer than early fall, and the cloudless sky meant that the sun was merciless as it baked the village. Maybe she’d done enough training for one day, she decided. This was a good day to sit back with a cold drink and be grateful that the humans had invented air conditioning.

Dozens of foxes were hard at work when Hanabi and the others arrived. The autumn harvest was always one of the most important tasks of the year. Hanei didn’t have much use for currency and tended more towards a barter system, when they didn’t just share things freely, but they imported things frequently from the outside world, where money was king. The village’s main export was the autumn crops that they sent out to groceries across Japan under Gen’s supervision, and those paid for nearly everything. Hanei had enough food and money stockpiled that they’d survive if disaster struck the harvest, but it would mean a year without new books, sewing material, confectionery supplies, and the various other luxury items that made village life more than just tolerable. Hanabi had lived through a handful of years like that, and she was in no hurry to experience another.

“Well, look who it is,” said one of the workers as she straightened up. “My favorite niece in the whole wide world! Just the person I’ve been wanting to talk to.” Hanabi gulped at the sight of Captain Ichika, and seriously considered the merits of turning around and running in the other direction, but she knew the woman would just chase after her and catch her. She always did.

At nearly seven feet, Ichika towered over all three girls, and she had the strapping physique to match. She looked like she could pick up a car without breaking a sweat. She probably **would** if she owned one. It wouldn’t be any more ridiculous than the rest of her exercise routine, which she’d followed religiously for centuries now. The blonde had her hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a beaming smile beneath the dirt and sweat, though her pleasant expression didn’t mask the fire in her eyes when she looked at Hanabi.

“Hello, um, Aunt Ichika,” Hanabi squeaked. “I, uh, didn’t realize you’d be here.” She’d avoided going anywhere near the police station or Ichika’s home for the last week, to try and prevent exactly this.

“The fields could always use more hands,” Ichika said easily, “and work was slow today.” She brushed some of the dirt off her hands. “So, it’s been a while since we last had ourselves a good chat and caught up with each other. How have you been, Hanabi? Any interesting field trips lately that I should know about?”

Hanabi looked at her friends for help, but they were already stepping away from her. At least Rei had the decency to keep a straight face. Sakura was practically giggling. “I was going to come and tell you about those men-”  
  
“Those troops,” Ichika corrected, her smile openly predatory by now. “Those armed troops that a young woman with no field training has no business being around. Especially a young woman who promised to go straight to her aunt the next time she found any large groups of humans wandering the woods.”

“I was **going** to come and tell you,” the white fox repeated, “but we promised I would tell you about anyone I found within five miles of the village, right? And they were never closer than seven. So I **had** to keep a close eye on them to, y’know, see if they ever approached close enough to warrant telling you about it.”

  
“Hanabi,” the captain said flatly. “It’s been over a week. Is that really the best excuse you were able to think up?”

“I’ve been really busy,” Hanabi complained. “I can come up with a better one later, honest.” This time Sakura couldn’t hold back the giggle.

“Do yourself a favor and save it for the next time you need one,” her aunt said dryly. “In the meantime, why don’t you lend us a hand with the fields today? You can work right next to me, and we can spend the time discussing **exactly** what you should and should not be doing when you’re outside of Hanei. Assuming that I ever allow you to leave the village again, that is.”

“I, I’d love to,” Hanabi said, backing away slowly, “but I, I **really** need to get back to my training. My dad, he, he didn’t want to let me leave at all, and he’ll want me back as soon as possible…”

“Leave Kamio to me,” Ichika said, her eyes sparkling. “I’ll walk you home tonight and explain the whole thing to him myself. I’m sure my brother will understand; like I said, the fields always need more hands.”

  
“But I, I don’t even **have** hands right now,” Hanabi protested weakly.

“Don’t be silly! There’s plenty you’ll be able to do with your tails. It’ll be good exercise and good practice. Now come on.” She knelt back down and patted the ground next to her. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

Yeah, Hanabi reflected as she sighed and resigned herself to a long, sweltering, and lecture filled afternoon, Captain Ichika never did.

**********

This was going to be the day, Hanabi told herself. This was it. She was gonna summon actual fire or… or… or she was gonna explode.

“I’ll bet you all of next week’s chores that she doesn’t manage it,” Kamio told his husband. The two of them were snuggling on the couch as they watched their daughter make what had to be her two thousandth attempt by now.

“You are a **rat** ,” Hanabi accused. “You’re betting **against** your own student?!”

“Yes, I’m shameless,” Kamio agreed. “Won’t it feel wonderful when you finally succeed and put me in my place? Ow!” His last comment was directed at his husband. “Why you are poking me?”

“Because you keep poking her, dear,” Nobu said. “If making her lose her temper was all it took, she’d have burned the house down weeks ago.”

“You’re not helping either,” Hanabi snapped. “I’m sure this would be way easier if I was using my hands, instead of being dressed up like a fly in a spider web.”

It had been a month and a half since Hanabi’s lessons began. She’d hoped that her father’s words about making her go without her legs had been a joke, but sure enough, after two weeks, just when she was starting not to mind the arm restraints so much, he’d presented her with fresh rope. He’d bound her legs together from ankle to hip, leaving her enough mobility to stand, sit, lay down, and absolutely nothing else. It had taken her an entire week before she’d managed to even leave the house.

At least Nobu had stopped wearing restraints of his own. She knew he’d meant it as a show of solidarity, but watching him effortlessly go about his day as though his arms and legs were mere conveniences only made her feel even clumsier. Her mood had gotten so bad for a while that Kamio had even stopped making fun of her.

That was almost a month ago, and she’d gotten much better, but even the simplest acts still took her full concentration. Right now, she was standing in one of the positions Nobu recommended for practice: a standing position with eight of her tails down and pushing against the ground to lift her a few inches up in the air. It was intended to train both her strength and her balance, and she’d gotten good enough that she could regularly adopt it with just three tails these days, and sometimes manage with two alone, but right now her attention was needed elsewhere. On this stupid foxfire that refused to behave.

She held her ninth tail up and let her fire gather at the tip, barely larger than a candle flame. She was certain that she was close - she could get it to look and move almost exactly like real fire now - but it was still just an empty heatless illusion, no matter how hard she tried.

“It’s not about making it **like** fire,” Kamio told her. “It’s about making it **be** fire.”

“It’s about making it **be** fire,” Hanabi mocked. “Maybe I should try torching your rare book collection. I bet that’s exactly the motivation I need.”

“Flower,” Nobu said tiredly. “Your father really is trying to help, I promise. Teaching is as new to him as these lessons are to you, and you know how he is with new things.”

Kamio shrugged his shoulders. “He’s right. Beneath this flawless, youthful, vibrant exterior lies a decrepit old man with a decrepit old man brain. Some mornings I find myself awed that I managed to get out of bed alive. Ow!” He rubbed his side. “Alright, alright. Your father is correct, as usual. You haven’t been doing anything wrong, Flower, I’m just a lousy teacher. I’m not the only one in the village who knows these things, and any of the others would do a better job passing it on than I would. Why don’t I arrange something with one of them tomorrow morning?”

“No,” Hanabi said firmly. “I don’t want to learn from someone else, Dad. I want to learn from you. So I’ll keep trying to make this stupid ball of flame do what I tell it to, and you keep trying to show me what I’m missing, okay?”

“Why don’t we start from the beginning?” Nobu suggested. “You said the trick was to make the foxfire be fire. Can you try to explain what you mean by that, walk us through it step by step?”  
  
“I…” Kamio shrugged again, but this time it was less flippant and more helpless. “I just put some-”

“Some oomph into it,” Hanabi finished. She’d heard the line about a million times by now. “I know.”

“Okay. And what’s the ‘it’? What **exactly** are you putting it into?” Nobu asked.

“Hmm?” Kamio replied, confused. “Into the fire.”  
  
“Yeah, into the foxfire,” Hanabi said. “I got that much at least.”

“No, not the foxfire,” Kamio corrected. “The fire fire.”

Hanabi gave her father a puzzled look. “What? No. That doesn’t make any sense. How can I put anything into the fire before I **have** the fire?”

“You put it into the image of the fire,” Kamio said, as though the answer was obvious. “You fill the image and then the foxfire becomes fire.” He stared back at her disbelieving expression. “Don’t give me that look. I told you during our first proper lesson that you had to visualize the fire!” In a hundred and twenty years, Hanabi had never heard him raise his voice that loudly.  
  
“You didn’t say that was part of the process!” the girl shouted back. “You made it sound like it was just a motivational thing, you know? Like, visualize your success or something! If that’s all I have to do…” She dismissed the foxfire that was trying to mimic the real thing, and instead pictured a real fire at the tip of her tail. She imagined the warmth of it, the way it would dance and cast little flickers of light around the room. Then she began pouring foxfire into it. It was difficult from both sides: the image kept trying to melt away, and the foxfire kept fighting her attempts to force it into solidity. But after weeks of exhausting her foxfire day in and day out, and spending Goddess knew how many hours trying to mimic the perfect flame, she was able to control the foxfire while holding the image together, and suddenly a tiny drop of flame, **real** flame, appeared. “See?!” she demanded. “If it was that simple, I could’ve been doing this by, like, the end of the first week, instead of spending weeks trying to do it wrong! I…”

She stopped and stared at the fire. “I did it…” she whispered. “I… I did it!”

And then she nearly fell over as Kamio embraced her in a fierce hug. “You did it!” he said, sounding even more proud about it than she did. “You really did it!” Father and daughter were both practically squealing in glee as they hugged each other tight and celebrated. Hanabi was so excited that she almost forgot to extinguish the flame before it caught on something and she really did burn the house down.

“You’re welcome,” Nobu said with more than a little smugness. “I’ll go get started on dinner.”

**********

When Hanabi was still a small child, the village of Hanei did little to celebrate individual birthdays. Like the rest of Japan before the cultural changes following World War II, New Year’s Day marked the moment villagers considered themselves one year older. So while that day was one of the biggest occasions of the year, actual birthdays didn’t see things like parties or cakes.

Hanabi missed those times.

“Happy birthday to you,” everyone sang. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Hanabi... Happy birthday to you!” Her parents, Ichika, Tomo, Tobi, Sakura, and Rei were all gathered in their kitchen while Hanabi was trapped at the table.

The white haired girl cautiously removed her tails from her ears. “Is it o-“

“And many mooooooorrrrrrrrrre!” Kamio and Nobu belted loudly, and she winced and covered her ears again.

“You know you’re supposed to stop doing this after your kid is grown up, right?” she asked her fathers despairingly. “If I’m gonna have to endure hundreds more of these, I might just have to shoot myself.”

“Look at her, pretending she doesn’t love every second of this,” remarked a grinning Kamio. Out of all the modern ideas he could have glommed onto, why did it have to be birthdays? Hanabi scrunched lower in her “seat” at the table. Everyone was crowded together in the kitchen for the party, the others standing while the white haired girl rested on several of her own bent tails. She still wasn’t as good at using them as her father, and she had a feeling that she never would be, but she’d adapted well enough over the last three months that she was barely bothered by her bound arms and legs anymore.

Nobu nodded in agreement. “I remember when she used to wake up practically at the crack of dawn every year because she was so excited about cake and presents. Do you remember how I used to have to hide the cake the night before, because of that one time...”

“When she snuck downstairs while we were asleep and ate half of it!” finished Kamio, laughing. “And we woke up to find her lying on the floor, face covered in frosting and moaning about how she was going to throw up!”

Hanabi’s cheeks felt as hot as any fire as she tried to hide her head in her tails. “It wasn’t half the cake!” she protested. “It was just one piece, and I only got sick because of the milk!” She’d woken up in the middle of the night feeling miserable because of a winter cold, and managed to convince herself that a preemptive slice of birthday cake would be the perfect midnight snack to make her feel better. But she’d been so focused on not waking her parents up that between that and her stuffy nose she hadn’t realized the milk had spoiled until she took a great big awful gulp.

“I’d give up if I were you,” advised Aunt Ichika as Hanabi’s fathers continued to laugh about the past. “Kamio is still upset that **he** didn’t get to celebrate birthdays as a kit. He won’t be satisfied until you’re old and grey and buried alive in presents.”

“Don’t blame me for knowing a good idea when I see one,” her brother countered. “You get to be the star of a party, eat dessert, and everybody gives you things. What’s not to love?”

“Then why don’t I just give you mine?” Hanabi grumbled. “Then you can have two birthdays a year and I can be free.” Despite her complaining, she couldn’t keep a smile off her face. She didn’t really mind birthdays, she just wished her dad didn’t like hers quite so much. And Nobu was always shamelessly encouraging him, too.

“Aren’t the candles supposed to be lit?” observed Tobi. Tomo’s brother was much shorter than her and could be just as shy in his own way, which in this case meant standing a bit apart from everyone else, who were close enough to be rubbing shoulders in the tiny room. He had a generally serious disposition too, which made him fun to tease.

“Oh, they’re not?” Hanabi said in mock surprise. “Let me fix that!”

Tobi stiffened as he realized what she meant. “I don’t know if that’s a good-“

“Fireball!” the white haired girl shouted as she extended a tail. Everyone except her fathers flinched back as the cake was suddenly engulfed in a sphere of flame nearly big enough to swallow the entire table, its heat washing over the entire room in a wave. The illusion vanished as quickly as it had arrived, leaving behind small flickers of candlelight. “Is that what you were expecting me to do?” she asked Tobi, whose face had gone pale, and stuck her tongue out at him. “I wish.”

She held her tail up in the air, showing the tiny flame that she’d used to light the candles beneath the illusion of the fireball. “I still can’t manage much more than this, sorry,” she said. “But maybe by the time my next birthday rolls around, I’ll be a proper arsonist.”

“Flower, what did I tell you about using your foxfire to scare people like that?” Kamio asked.

“That it’s hilarious, and I should remember to blow some air out around it so it feels more like a real explosion?” Hanabi recalled.

“Yes,” Kamio admitted. “But what about after Nobu scolded the both of us?”

“...That I shouldn’t be using true foxfire for silly pranks.”

“I thought it was spectacular,” Rei said. “Have you ever tried your hand at artwork? With that sort of attention to detail, I think you’d have a real talent for drawing or painting.” Tomo nodded in agreement.

“Nah,” Hanabi said cheerfully. “Putting something down on paper and just leaving it there isn’t really my style. I like stuff while it’s **alive** , y’know?” She leaned forward and blew out the candles.

“I prefer all sorts of things while they’re alive too,” Nobu said dryly as he began to cut the cake. “Which is why you should-“

“Always be careful with foxfire,” he and Hanabi said at the same time.

With the birthday singing endured and cake parceled out, everyone began to drift apart and spread throughout the first floor, multiple conversations forming at once. “I was thinking a bit of lace here would be perfect,” Sakura said while showing Tomo the fashion designs from her sketch pad, both girls now seated at the kitchen table. “But I can’t decide what color will be best.”

“Are you going to be wearing this yourself?” Tomo asked. “Then forest green might pair well with your pink hair. Or if you wanted a brighter look, you could try a nice sunny yellow.”

“Ooh, yellow sounds perfect,” agreed Sakura. “If I bring some swatches over tomorrow, could you help me choose one?”

Kamio had his arm casually slung around Tobi as the two sat on the couch. “So we make it to the campsite,” he was telling the boy. “And there are thirty men-“

“Ten,” interjected Ichika, who sat on Tobi’s other side.

“Ten men,” Kamio agreed without breaking stride. “And they’re not like most hunters. They’re already dug in and ready for a fight. Tripwires, snares, pit traps, and every single one of them has a shotgun-“

“Handguns, mostly. One came with an old hunting rifle.”

“Sitting right next to them, ready to go. Now, we could’ve just waited them out, let them get bored and go home, but this was right in the middle of tourist season, and there’s a decent chance some regular camper wanders too close and gets accosted by them. So we need to rid of them, right?”

“Right,” Tobi agreed.

“So naturally, Ichika and me decide that the best way is to have ourselves a little contest to see which one of us can trick more into their own traps.” Ichika nodded along.

“Wait,” Tobi interrupted. “Why?”

Kamio and Ichika looked quizzically at each other. “Why... what?” Ichika asked after a moment.

“...Never mind,” said Tobi.

“Sakura was telling me earlier you’ve been looking forward to my next book,” Nobu told Rei while they stood together with Hanabi near his writing desk.

The dark haired girl’s features became stiff and formal. “I… yes. Very much so, sir.”

“She also said something about you being interested in private lessons? I hadn’t known you were thinking of taking up writing, but I’d be happy to schedule some time with you later this week.”

Rei narrowed her eyes slightly while Hanabi fought to keep from laughing. “I’m glad that Sakura was thinking of me. I’ll have to be sure to thank her…”

Some time later, everyone was gathered back in the kitchen. “I wasn’t sure which kind to get, but Tomo said that these were your favorites,” Tobi said as he presented Hanabi with a box of red bean pastries.

“Oooh,” Hanabi said as she accepted them with a pair of tails. “They are! Thank you!” She carefully placed the box next to the brooch she’d received from Sakura and the book Rei had given her.

Tomo shyly stepped up next with a large box. “I just finished modifying this for you yesterday. I ordered it a few months ago, right after you began taking your lessons.” Hanabi opened the box to reveal a thick winter coat. “It’s for you to wear when… when you’re out in the forest,” the brunette explained.

“I love it!” Hanabi exclaimed. She looked at her fathers. “Is it okay if I…?”

The two men exchanged a look, and Nobu smiled. “As a matter of fact, Flower, that was going to be my present for you. I think you’ve officially graduated beyond the restraints by now.”

“Oh **thank Goddess** ,” the girl exclaimed. She had plenty of experience taking the ropes off by now, and was able to wriggle free of them in seconds and enjoy a nice long stretch. “This is soooooo much better,” she breathed, and then put on the coat. “And it’s a perfect fit too! Tomo, you’re amazing!” She embraced her best friend with her blessedly free arms.

“It… it wasn’t that big a deal,” she heard Tomo say in an awkward stutter, but her friend hugged her back.

“So, if that was Nobu’s present,” Hanabi asked Kamio once she’d let go of Tomo, “then yours would be…”

  
The blond man nodded. “Even I have to admit that you’ve jumped through all the hoops. As long as you’re careful… we’re okay with you going back out into the forest.”

“Yessss!” Hanabi exulted, and then gave her aunt a guilty look. “I mean, I’ll definitely be super duper careful, and safe, and stuff.”

“Mmm hmm,” Ichika said skeptically, but she was smiling. “Don’t make me regret **my** present to you, Hanabi. The twins scented a couple new visitors to our neck of Shirakami Sanchi this morning. You feel like paying them a little visit tomorrow morning?”

Hanabi grinned.

**********

The winter morning air was bitter, but to Hanabi it was only a pleasant crispness. She loped across the forest, enjoying the speed and grace of her true fox form even more now that she was finally free of those ridiculous restraints for good.

Small groups like the pair she was after today were far more common than the military outfit three months ago. There were a few like them every year: people who’d heard rumors of mysterious things happening in Shirakami Sanchi, and decided to explore its depths. Most of them didn’t even associate the stories with kitsune. Generally they’d wander around, poke at things at bit, and never get within ten miles of the village, but occasionally some lucky souls would manage to stumble close to it. According to Ichika, the two visitors were a man and a woman, so they were most likely a husband and wife out on a little adventure. Hanabi saw her visits to folks like these as more of a gift to them than anything else. She never hurt any of them, just shook them up a little and gave them a good story to tell when they went back home. She was well aware that it was probably these very stories that were the source of all the rumors, and that if she just left people alone to have a boring walk in the woods they’d stop showing up, but, well, it was much more fun this way for everyone.

It took her longer than expected to locate the pair. The scent of the new winter was still sharp and fresh, and it was hard to smell anything else, but eventually she narrowed in on a scent that was decidedly human. It wasn’t even noon yet, but they already seemed to be stopped for the day. She circled around their position for a good hour, and they didn’t move from that spot, but to her amusement she started picking up the smell of sex coming from them. Definitely a husband and wife pair then.

Hanabi considered just heading back home and letting the two of them boink in peace. That was the polite thing to do, right? But she’d really been looking forward to having some fun with them. For all she knew, this was consolation sex to make up for not finding anything, and as soon as they were done they were going to pack up and leave. Besides, they were out in what was technically a public area, so it wasn’t like she’d be doing anything wrong if she went and took a look. They might even be exhibitionists or something, to be doing it out here, right? Right.

The fox was aware that she was making excuses, and her face felt flushed despite the cold as she moved in closer, careful not to make any noise. The truth was that despite one hundred and twenty years of life, Hanabi still didn’t have any personal experience with… that kind of stuff. Not for lack of interest, Goddess no, but thanks to her white fur she’d never formed an intimate relationship with anyone.

As fun as yesterday’s birthday party had been, it had also underscored how isolated she was from everyone. Out of a village of over five hundred kitsune, there were only seven people she felt comfortable around, and three of them were family, which didn’t really count. But her isolation didn’t matter here. When she was out in the forest, Hanabi didn’t have to worry about what others thought of her, or her place in the village. She could just relax and have fun. And in this case, fun meant doing a little… peeping? Spying? **Observing**. She was going to observe the two humans and see what they were up to. And if her nose was correct and what they were up to was “going at it like bunnies”, well, Hanabi hadn’t just been not getting any for decades, she’d been living with two foxes whose noses were sharp enough to tell them absolutely everything their daughter got up to in her bedroom. She wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to enjoy a show.

She heard the humans long before she saw them. The woman, anyway. The man was silent, but his partner sounded like she was having the time of her life, moaning and whimpering so frequently and loudly that the whole village could probably hear her. She never spoke an intelligible word, but by the time Hanabi crested a hill and they came into view, she’d very obviously finished three separate times.

She’d expected to find them at their campsite, but there was nothing around them but a pile of discarded clothing and the forest itself, a patch of snow cleared away to give them space. Maybe they really were exhibitionists. The man was on his back while the woman rode him, and from the look of it, she was doing all the work. She furiously ground her crotch against his own, bucking against him with an intensity that made the slapping sound of flesh upon flesh ring out every time her ass met his hips. Her hands were on her breasts, twisting and pinching her own nipples as she continued audibly expressing her joy. By comparison, her partner seemed almost bored, making no sound and watching her with a flat expression. It was only the occasional involuntary bucking of his hips that communicated his own pleasure.

Hanabi’s breath caught as she watched the two of them. The man was nothing special to look at - early forties, blond hair, worn features - but the woman was absolutely gorgeous, with dark hair and green eyes. She looked half his age too, her skin and body flawless in their youth. She was such an amazing sight that Hanabi nearly forgot to cloak herself with foxfire. Her white fur blended well enough in the snow that it wasn’t really necessary, but the fox girl wasn’t going to be careless just because she was horny.

Like Kamio had drilled into her, she masked every trace of her presence. Hiding herself was the easy part; true skill came in using foxfire to manipulate her surroundings. It was strenuous and exacting work to shift the snow beneath her to leave no trace of her passing, to cool the air around her to hide her body heat, shift the wind currents to counter her breath, and more. Watching her father do it for the first time had been like watching a conductor effortlessly lead an entire orchestra. By comparison, she felt like someone trying to play the piano with mittens on. But despite her clumsiness, she’d managed to improve enough that Kamio had - reluctantly- approved her going out.

After a few minutes, and another pair of orgasms from his partner, the man came. When it happened, his only reaction was to clutch at the woman’s hips, pulling her down against him. She responded by finishing a final time herself, throwing her head back and letting out a scream of wild pleasure that dwarfed all her past exclamations. Hanabi didn’t even realize that she’d transformed back into a human until she felt two of her fingers sliding into her own wet crotch. She’d dressed in preparation for the cold, with thick winter clothes and the wonderfully warm coat that Tomo had gifted her, but her hand had easily slipped beneath the layers to find her slit. She humped herself on her digits as she watched the erotic display. The dark haired woman’s entire body was shaking helplessly in the throes of the powerful orgasms, and as her scream faded she collapsed bonelessly onto his chest, held up only by his hands on her hips.

When the man let go of her, she resumed her rhythm, but at a much slower pace now, a gentle rolling meant to encourage him. His load was beginning to seep out of her, and her fingers skillfully caught it as it dribbled down. When her hand was sticky with his seed and no more of it was coming out, she slowly lapped it clean, running her tongue slowly across her palm and over one finger at a time.

It wasn’t until this was done that the dark haired woman finally spoke. “Was that acceptable, Master Levi?” she asked, and the tone of her voice was so jarring that Hanabi winced. It was calm and passionless, at complete odds with her wanton behavior.

Her partner snorted. “Barely, bitch,” he said sourly. He roughly pushed her off of him, leaving her sprawled on her side. “You’re still about as believable as a three dollar bill, but even a stupid fucktoy has its uses, doesn’t it?”  
  
“Yes, Master Levi,” she said, her voice betraying zero emotion about what he’d just said, or the sudden violence.

Hanabi’s fingers had frozen inside her, and she had the sense that she’d gotten in way over her head. She knew about BDSM and stuff like that, but this didn’t feel like some harmless kinkiness. It felt… wrong. She looked into the woman’s eyes and saw a weight behind them that she hadn’t seen before. There was no passion, or joy, or any of the things the fox would’ve expected to see from someone who’d just finished having what had looked like fantastic sex. There was only grim determination there.

Those same eyes flicked in her direction and met her own. Hanabi suppressed a shiver. She was completely and utterly hidden. There was no way she could have- “There is a kitsune watching us, Master Levi,” the woman said calmly.

  
Hanabi’s jaw dropped. Levi cursed and backhanded her with a causal, all too familiar swing of one arm. “Why the fuck didn’t you say something sooner?” he demanded

“You instructed me to focus all of my attention on pleasing you while you are inside me,” his partner said. “I could not detect her until we were done.”

Panic rose up in Hanabi’s throat as she checked her foxfire. She had to have made a mistake somewhere, forgotten to hide some critical piece. But she didn’t see it. Her crafting seemed as well put together as any she’d ever made, and yet the woman was still looking straight at her. She didn’t have time to redo everything, so she dropped the more complicated parts, leaving just sight, sound and smell hidden, and hastily cobbled together a quick illusion.

An invisible Hanabi rose and ran away from the strangers. Though she couldn’t be seen, she ran at a frantic, haphazard pace that crunched snow and jostled bushes, leaving a clear and audible trail behind her. So it seemed, anyway, the footprints and rustling foliage as fake as everything else. The real Hanabi remained where she was, trying to stay perfectly still. This wasn’t the first time she’d been noticed by a hunter, though it had been years since she’d been so careless. This trick had always thrown them off; the best way to keep your prey from catching you was to give them something else to catch. Her current camouflage was simple but effective, and she double and triple checked that she hadn’t made any mistakes. She just had to wait for them to give chase to the illusion and… the woman’s eyes had never wavered from hers.

The woman could see through her illusions. Hanabi had no idea how, but there was no other possibility. The realization left her feeling horribly exposed. A smooth, pale arm lifted to point a finger directly at her. “She is there, Master Levi,” the woman said. “Shall I retrieve her for you?”

“Damn right you should,” he grumbled. “And be quick about it. My cock is itching for some good fox cunt.”

The white haired girl didn’t bother trying any more illusions. She simply shifted into her natural fox form and bounded away at full speed. The snow rushed beneath her as she fled, moving far faster than any human could. Even in her panic, she made sure not to head towards the village. The last thing she wanted to do was lead these strangers back home. Even the layers and layers of foxfire defenses that had kept it hidden for centuries might not be enough against someone like them.

Her heart pounded in her ears as she ran. This was no longer a game. She had to find a way back and warn the others. She had to- ahead of her, the dark haired woman stepped out from behind a tree, moving with no apparent haste. She raised a delicate hand, and Hanabi cried out as icy cold bit into her, as sharp and shocking as having a bucket of ice water dumped on her head. Shivering, she spun and changed direction, kicking up snow as she raced away.

The chill clung to her, sapping her strength, and making her movements clumsy. It felt like it was getting colder with each passing moment. She glanced behind her, trying to spot her pursuer, but there was no sign of the woman until she appeared in front of her again, as easily as before. Hanabi whimpered in terror and changed direction again, but her limbs didn’t want to obey her. She scrambled away as awkward as a young kit, the cold making her feel like she dragged iron weights behind her.

Even the air around her was so cold now that it hurt to breathe it in, her chest aching. She took a ragged breath, and found that she could take no more. Choking, she lost control of her momentum entirely and tumbled head over heels to land on her side. Her chest heaved as she tried to draw a breath, but something was wrong. Her lungs weren’t working properly, the airway too tight to take a proper breath. Her head pounded as she wheezed helplessly. An icy hand touched her, and the cold grew even worse, crashing down on her like a wave. She screamed breathlessly as it became pure agony, and then all at once, like a balloon popping, Hanabi’s fox form vanished and she found herself in her human shell again.

The cold receded just slightly as a hand grabbed hold of her hair and began dragging her across the ground. Hanabi tried to struggle against it, but she was more exhausted than she’d ever been in her life. Her hands pawed weakly at the person dragging her, as useless as a rabbit trying to fend off a wolf as her limp body scraped painfully over snow and frozen dirt.

She could no longer smell the woman holding her at all, just a gnawing cold that made her nostrils hurt, but she smelled the man as they drew nearer. Hanabi remembered his parting words and renewed her efforts to get away, with no more success than before. All too soon they were back at the bare campsite, and she was hauled forward and dumped face first onto the ground. Before she could even think about standing, a foot pressed on her neck, pinning her down. “Took you long enough,” Levi grumbled.

“My apologies, Master Levi,” the woman said evenly. “It would have been faster if you had eased the restrictions on my abilities.”

“What, and give you the chance to try something, exploit some tiny loophole in my orders?” Levi spat on the ground. “I’m not as stupid as you think I am, Celeste. Fae or no fae, I don’t let animals run around without a leash.” His foot came off of Hanabi’s neck, and then connected sharply with her side, making her grunt in pain as she was forcibly rolled over onto her back. She looked up at the two of them. The woman looked as impassive as before, while Levi looked furious and hungry, hungry in a way that made the pit of her stomach drop.

“Hold her,” Levi ordered, and the white haired girl winced as Celeste stepped on her hands. She didn’t weigh all that much, but pushing against her was like trying to roll a boulder uphill. Hanabi tried to bring her tails up, but they wouldn’t move. A glance showed her that they were splayed on the ground around her, a block of solid ice around the tip of each one. She was so cold that she hadn’t even noticed. Even after all the training she’d done with Nobu, in her current state she was too tired to raise her tails more than a couple inches off the ground.

The blond man crouched and began unceremoniously ripping apart her winter coat, destroying Tomo’s gift with his bare hands. “Please,” Hanabi begged weakly. “I-I’m sorry, I won’t, won’t go near you again, so please, please don’t hurt me. If you just let me go, I-mmppph!”

“Shut up, cunt,” Levi said as he shoved part of her torn coat into her mouth to gag her, forcing it down deep enough that she couldn’t spit it out. “I’ll show you some good uses for that mouth soon, but talking my ear off won’t be one of them.” He ripped more of her clothes away, until only her fox skin was left. Wearing it openly had become unfashionable centuries ago, and going anywhere without it was foolish, so like most people in the village, Hanabi’s skin normally took the form of smallclothes that she wore beneath everything else.

The whitehaired girl tried desperately to transform, but her powers wouldn’t obey. She whined softly as he grabbed hold of the neck of the plain white garment that had become her last defense and began to pull. He couldn’t do this to her. There had to be something she could do, some illusion or, or something! Too panicked to think straight, she could only stare hopelessly up at him at the fox skin slowly ripped apart down the middle. All too soon it was over, and he was tossing it to the ground next to him like so much trash. She was naked, powerless, and trapped.

Hanabi squirmed as his hands returned to begin poking and prodding her bare chest. No one but her parents had ever seen her naked, and no one had ever touched her there. “Another little fox slut,” Levi growled, twisting her nipples to make her squeal into her gag. Compared to the overpowering cold filling her body, his hands felt so hot that they were practically burning her. “You’re the one that’s been playing tricks out here, aren’t you? The one who wasted our fucking time.” He wore a hateful expression as he stared into her eyes. “Did you have fun, bitch?”

Something hot brushed against her bare thighs. No, no, no, not like this. She’d imagined her first time in a hundred different ways, but never like this, freezing and terrified and being violated by a stranger. She brought her knees together for protection, but he wrenched them apart easily, exposing her to him. “I bet you did,” he said, rubbing himself over her slit. “I bet you felt powerful and in control. Felt like you were the one in charge around here. Like you could play your stupid little games all you wanted, and fuck with whoever you liked.”

His hips thrust forward, and Hanabi went rigid as his member penetrated her. It tore through her hymen in an instant, stretching her opening far wider than her curious fingers had ever dared. “But this is what you really are, slut,” Levi snarled as she screamed uselessly into her gag, and spat in her face. “You have no power, no control. You’re just another worthless furry fleshlight.” His hands grabbed her sides and he forced himself in deeper. His shaft felt like it was lined with sandpaper as it forced her virgin tunnel open, inch after inch disappearing into her bloody slit. “You’ll never make that mistake again.”

By the time his hips met her own, she felt like she’d been run through, his cock a fat, pulsing intrusion that she was certain would split her in two at any moment. Hanabi’s breath came in short, sharp bursts from out her nose, pain and terror reducing her mind to little more than animal instinct. She was so out of it that when he began to pull back, she actually thought it was over, that he’d gotten what he wanted and was going to let her go. It was when he slammed back into her and she realized the truth, that this nightmare was only beginning, that the tears began to flow.

Her shame doubled when she realized that he was laughing at her. “You were a true virgin, weren’t you?” he mocked as he savaged her insides. “Even with your always tight, always virgin holes, it’s easy to tell when it’s really the first time for one of you fox sluts. It’s that pathetic look on your faces that does it. You could outlive me by a thousand years, slut, and I would still always be your first. Is this everything you thought it would be?”

Hanabi screwed her eyes shut to block out his sneering face. She wished she could do the same for his voice, but she could no more escape his insults than she could his prick. “I’m going to be your second time too,” he promised her. “And your third, and your fourth… this slutty body is going to be working hard to please me from now on.”. He lowered his head to bring his lips close to her ears. “Savor the attention while you can, little cunt. When I get sick of you, I’ll toss what’s left to my men. A week from now you’ll be getting fucked a couple hundred times a day. A month and you won’t even remember that you were ever more than a white furred cumrag.” He bit her ear without warning, the sudden pain making her squeal helplessly and involuntarily clench around him.

Every thrust was as sharp and violent as a punch to the gut. This wasn’t sex. It wasn’t even fucking. He was just torturing her with his cock, using it to maul her pussy and batter the entrance to her womb. And once the brutal reaming was over… there was no risk of conceiving with him, but the thought of this vile man’s seed inside her, defiling her most intimate place, still made her sick to her stomach.

As his orgasm grew closer, Levi seemed to be having similar thoughts. “Your pussy will never be like it was before, slut,” he gloated. “My cum will stay inside you forever. Your womb, your stomach, your guts… you’ll live and die as a sperm soaked, fur lined fuckdoll, starting… **now**!” He lunged forward a final time to bury himself the hilt, his head pressed up against her cervix, and Hanabi felt warm slime spatter her insides. She twisted, trying to avoid the spray, but his hands kept her firmly impaled on him as he unloaded into her. He held her like that, refusing to let even an inch of his prick leave her tight confines before his entire load had been deposited inside her.

When he finally pulled out of her, she felt like she'd been hollowed out. She tried to draw her legs together, to at least hide the sight of her ravaged, cum-filled hole from him, but her groin hurt too much to move. She remained splayed out instead, unwillingly giving him and the rest of the world the full view.

Celeste knelt behind her head, keeping the fox's hands pinned with her knees. She brusquely pulled the scrap of coat from her mouth, letting her cough and gasp for breath.

Hanabi whimpered a little we she saw the cock dangling between Levi’s legs for the first time. She'd thought it was only her imagination making it feel so big, but it truly was massive. Seeing its thick shaft and bulbous head, knowing that he had crammed that entire thing into her and pounded her insides with it, made her pussy ache even more. The entire thing was smeared with blood and cum, and the sight and smell of it nearly made her throw up. She'd never witnessed anything more disgusting.

Her reaction must have been plain on her face, because he returned it with a sneer. "See what a filthy cunt you are?" he growled, wagging his cock at her. "Did I give you permission to bleed all over my prick, slut?"

When she said nothing, he reared his foot back and kicked her squarely between the legs. Fireworks exploded in her vision and she screamed. "I asked you a question, animal!" he snapped, and kicked her again. "Did I give you permission to get your filthy, subhuman fox blood on my prick?"

"N-no," she answered quickly, before he could kick her again, and then howled as he did it anyway.

"That's right," he snarled, and dropped onto her chest suddenly, his weight forcing the breath out of her lungs. He grabbed both her ears and twisted them sharply, and it hurt even more than being kicked. She didn't have the breath to scream anymore, so her pain was voiced by a sad wheeze instead.

Levi yanked back on her ears, forcing her to raise her head up if she wanted to keep them. This brought her face right up to his crotch. From close up, he looked and smelled even worse than before. "Now clean your mess, bitch."

Hanabi felt soft, cool fingers touch her face, and then Celeste was hooking her index fingers into the white fox's mouth and pulling, stretching her mouth wide open. Levi yanked her ears back farther, and Hanabi gagged as his dirty cock sank into her mouth. His member was unpleasantly hot against her tongue, and beneath the metallic taste of her blood and the bitter slime of his semen, he tasted of sweat and urine. Nausea hit her like a physical blow, and her stomach churned. Instinct screamed at her to bite down, but the woman's fingers were stopping her.

Her entire body spasmed as his cockhead bounced off the entrance to her throat, setting off her gag reflex. When she realized his intention, she swallowed her pride and lapped the underside of his shaft, desperate to convince him that a blowjob would be sufficient. He was far too big to fit into her throat. It would kill her.

He didn't care.

Levi tugged on her ears a third time, slamming her face against him. His head hit the entrance to her throat and bounced off again, but he didn't stop pulling. His cock pushed against the entrance, straining to get inside, refusing to leave her throat unmolested. Something would have to give: her ears, his dick, or her throat.

The struggle lasted for eight seconds, and then something snapped and her throat surrendered, flesh stretching out to allow the intruder entrance. Hanabi gurgled helplessly as his fat mushroom head wedged itself into her gullet and slowly dug deeper. She didn't need a mirror to know that her neck was bulging around him, her throat stuffed as tightly as a cork in a bottle.

Levi's cock inched its way down as Hanabi's face began to turn red. She couldn't breathe. His dick was a fleshy throatplug that completely sealed her airway. She twitched weakly on the ground, feeling more powerless than she ever had in her life. He was going to murder her like this, and there was nothing she could do to stop him.

"Given the average time you take to ejaculate when using my throat, Master Levi," Celeste said from above her, "there is a strong chance the kitsune will perish before you are finished." There was no concern or sympathy in her tone as she confirmed Hanabi's nightmare. She could have been discussing the weather.

"Who cares?" Levi said contemptuously. "There are hundreds more where she came from, and she won't be the last nine tailed corpse we leave behind. Besides, an uppity bitch like this isn't worth the time to train."

The white haired girl's bloodshot eyes looked up at his, silently begging for some kind of mercy. She didn't want to die like this. She would let him fuck her again, if he'd just stop choking her. She would wrap her legs around him and do whatever he wanted and even try to help him put a baby in her if that was his goal, and all he had to do was let her breathe. She wouldn't be an uppity bitch, she promised.

Levi spat into her pleading eyes and pulled harder on her ears. His cock slipped the rest of the way in, the base rubbing her spread lips. Her entire throat was now stuffed full of his meat, the murder weapon pulsing softly inside her. "Still feel good about making a fool out of humans?" he hissed, not moving. "Still think you're so much better than us?"

Hanabi's head twitched from side to side in denial, unable to turn any further with his iron grip on her ears. She'd never thought of herself as above humans, but right now she felt far beneath them. She felt more like pond scum than a person.

Her silent answer must have satisfied him, because he began to slowly pull back. "I could let you die right here," he taunted, "and nothing of value would be lost. Just another pathetic animal put down. But maybe the winter cunt is right for a change. Is there a reason I should keep you alive, slut? Do you have anything to offer that's more appealing than leaving your body to rot out here with a load of warm cum in its belly?"

He didn't leave her throat, but he pulled back far enough that a trickle of air made it through her nostrils, sweeter than anything she'd ever known. Her chest heaved as she frantically sucked in more oxygen, but she didn't wait until she'd caught her breath to answer his question, terrified that he would grow impatient. “Uhlll… uhlll bee… uh guhh fuhh,” she said, forcing her words out around his shaft. She **would** be a good fuck. She’d try to be the best he ever had if it meant not choking to death on his cock. “Mahhthtuhh!” she added quickly, remembering the title his companion always gave him. “Uhlll bee uh guhh… guhh fuhh **mahhthtuhh**!”

"Prove it," he said, and began to rape her throat.

Ten minutes later, Hanabi's face was still thumping wetly against his crotch, her features a mess of blood, snot, tears, and cum. Her poor ears were being crushed in his fists, used as handles to bounce her head back and forth. She couldn't breathe any easier than before, but after every minute or so, he'd back up enough to grant her air for just a fraction of a second. Not enough to sate her body's demands, but enough to stay alive and conscious.

Her throat had loosened only slightly after the first couple hundred thrusts. His cock was still a poor fit, her gullet stretched tight around him. It was so cramped that she could feel every bristly hair and lumpy vein in him as he sank in and out, even sense his heartbeat from the way blood flowed through the shaft. It was steady and relaxed; he was nowhere close to finishing.

Her lungs screamed for her attention, but she didn't have time for them. She focused on keeping her gaze trained on his face instead, just the way he wanted. Her tongue danced around, caressing the underside of his pistoning shaft, and her lips pressed tight around him, trying to form a soft and welcoming ring to rub himself on. She was trying her genuine best to be a good cocksucker for him.

She was still terrible at it. Levi had made that clear enough. But for now, she was performing well enough to earn oxygen. Breathing was a privilege that only obedient fox sluts could earn, he'd told her. If she stopped trying her hardest to suck him off, or gave him the impression that she was anything but a repentant and eager to please fucktoy, she would know right away, because she would never draw breath again.

Oxygen deprivation had left her mind hazy and her thoughts disjointed, but she wasn't too far gone to feel hot shame over her submission. This man had raped her. He had considered murdering her in cold blood, and still might. She'd overheard enough to know that he had terrible intentions for her entire village, and by extension everyone she knew and loved. And what was she doing about it? Trying to tongue the spot just beneath the head, where it met the shaft, because she could tell he liked it there. She was pathetic.

She'd tried lying to herself while she slobbered all over his cock. She'd told herself that she was only trying to lull him into underestimating her. She'd pretended that if her hands or tails were free, she'd be fighting back. She'd insisted that Celeste's fingers were the only reason she was slurping on him instead of chewing. But deep down she knew the truth. He didn't need to restrain her or threaten her or take precautions. She was a coward, and she'd already given up.

"From now on, this is all you eat," he promised her. "You suck the cum out of me and my men, or you starve. Understand, fleshlight?" She nodded, accepting what her life was going to be like from now on. Anything to stay alive.

Hanabi felt his pulse begin to quicken and knew he was getting close. As his orgasm approached, his handling of her grew even rougher. Soon her eyes were swollen half shut, and the taste of blood on his shaft was growing stronger and fresher with each thrust. Something had happened to her right eardrum that made sounds tinny and faraway. She hurt, but they were all temporary. She would heal, if she lived long enough.

Panic crept in when he stopped sparing her breaths. He was entirely focused on his own pleasure now, and if he noticed that she was choking to death, it was only exciting him further. Her only hope was to keep servicing him, and convince her would-be murderer to cum down her throat before he killed her. She felt like the filthiest, most worthless girl in the world as she desperately sucked the cock of a man who didn't much care if she lived or died.

Her head was pounding and she was so out of it that she could barely remember what was going on when his cock swelled up. Her sensitive tongue felt his load traveling up his shaft, and an instant later warm, sticky goo erupted from the tip. Some of it shot right into her stomach, but most painted the inside of her throat instead, the salty substance like acid to her raw, swollen gullet. It couldn't have taken more than a few seconds for him to finish squirting his cum into her, but to her oxygen starved lungs it felt like hours.

As he finally began to soften, she greedily breathed around.him. He gave her a look of amused contempt. "You really are nothing but a worthless little throatslut, aren't you? Just finished and you're already trying to get me hard again." His words made her cringe, self disgust tearing through her sense of relief at being done. He was right: even though her oral rape was over, she was still caressing him with her tongue and lips, reluctant to give him a reason to grow angry with her.

He smirked at her, his limp prick still inside her mouth. Her tongue swirled around the head, meekly continuing despite his barb. "I've never seen anyone break this fast." He pulled himself out of her completely, letting his cock hover in front of her tired lips. "Beg me to piss down your throat, fox slut. Show me how easy it was to turn you into a whimpering, cock sucking, piss drinking fucktoy."

Frustration flared inside her as Celeste pulled her fingers out of her mouth to let her speak. She was only doing this because he'd demanded it of her! Why did he have to insult her for doing exactly what he'd pushed her into doing?! But she didn't dare voice those thoughts. Instead, she mumbled sadly, "please piss down my throat, ma-"

He didn't even let her finish, hot urine shooting straight down her throat. She gagged at the unexpected and revolting sensation. Hanabi didn't know which was harder to believe: that a stranger was urinating in her mouth, or that she was just letting him do it. He wasn't holding her ears anymore to keep her still, and Celeste wasn't forcing her lips apart. There was nothing stopping her from turning her head or closing her mouth to escape the disgusting stream of filth. Nothing but her own terror and cowardice.

Levi stroked his shaft when it was over, wringing the last few drops out onto her tongue while she waited submissively. "What's the difference between you and a toilet, slut?" he asked.

"I... don't know, master," she said, dreading the answer.

"A toilet doesn't cry like a little baby when you use it," he said, and then he spat on her again. "Now suck my cock some more. I want to see if your cunt feels even better now that it's broken in."

He leaned back and waited. He didn't grab her ears again, didn't threaten her for disobedience or tell Celeste to hold her mouth open again.

He didn't need to.

**********

Fifteen hours later, Hanabi was still alive. She didn’t know if she deserved to be.

She’d spent the entire day and night obeying her new owner, accepting his insults and abuse as readily as his piss and cum. Levi had raped her mouth and her cunt multiple times, and she had done her best to make it good for him every time. She’d thought that practice might make the experience easier, or that she would grow numb to the humiliation over time. She’d been wrong again, like the idiot she was. Every time he forced himself into one of her half-healed holes, it hurt even worse than the last time. Every new mocking comment made her feel even more like trash.

But nothing made her feel worse than her own submission. Hanabi, who had never so much as kissed someone before today, had been as passionate a lover for him as her exhausted body would let her. She hadn’t waited for him to give orders, she’d just acted, throwing away all her dignity and proving that she was every bit the filthy furry slut he kept calling her. A tiny part of her was glad that she would never return to the village again, because she couldn’t bear her fathers finding out the things she’d done to survive, and how easy it had been to make her do them.

She had half expected that the day would never end, and the cycle of abuse and rape would continue forever. But around midnight, he’d announced his intention to go to sleep. She’d been crouched in front of him at the time, her tongue exploring the now familiar wrinkles of his balls while her fingers worked between her legs, alternating between her cum dripping pussy and her still virgin asshole. The objective wasn’t to provide herself pleasure or make penetration any easier for her; Levi just suspected that her asshole would be so tight that it would be uncomfortable to fuck, so for the last few hours she’d been loosening it for him with her own fingers and cunt juices whenever her position allowed. Tomorrow, he’d promised, he would pound her guts so hard that all the kitsune healing in the world wouldn’t tighten her back up.

The white haired girl had understood her new life well enough by now to know that even though he was finished using her, she wouldn’t be allowed to rest unmolested. She’d still been surprised, though, when she saw what he had planned for her. The winter was old enough for the soil to be hard and frozen, but that had proved no trouble for Celeste. It had been as supple as wet clay for her as she dug a deep pit in the ground. For a few panicked moments, Hanabi thought they were going to bury her alive, and had begged Levi to spare her life, but he’d just laughed and struck her face hard enough to crack a cheekbone. As it turned out, the hole was only deep enough to bury her up to her nose, rendering her immobilized but able to breathe after Celeste filled it in as easily as she’d dug it.

Being out of sight underground didn’t make her body hurt any less. Levi had taken great satisfaction in breaking her arms and legs before dumping her into the pit. “We’ve run plenty of experiments with you animals,” he’d told her while snapping her left leg in two different places. “One time we broke a bitch’s arm and left her in a strait jacket for months, found it still broken when we came back. Turns out this little healing trick of yours only works if your bodies have the mobility to shift the flesh around. You should’ve heard the bitch scream when I shoved her onto her back and fucked her hard enough to give her three more fractures. And the look on her face when she realized we were going to leave her like that for a few more months, still bound and crippled, was priceless.”

His statement had proved true. Hanabi had been trapped in the ground for two hours now, and her broken limbs still radiated pain. He’d even put her in a hogtie formed from her own tails for good measure, and as a final humiliation, shoved some cum soaked scraps of her destroyed clothing in her mouth to gag her again. She was completely helpless until he woke up the next morning and wanted to use her some more.

**Almost** completely helpless.

Hanabi was almost too terrified to breathe, scared that the tiny sound would somehow be enough for Levi or Celeste to realize something was wrong. They’d gone somewhere out of sight, which should have been a comfort, but it meant that she couldn’t keep an eye on them, couldn’t see if they were actually asleep yet or not. She was so exhausted that she could barely see straight, and it took all her focus to keep going instead of passing out. Her biggest motivation was that this was her one and only opportunity. She’d already drained more than half her remaining foxfire for this, and wouldn’t be able to try again.

Fire was the first thing she’d learned to truly create, and it was still what she was the best at. Beneath the ground, where her captors couldn’t see, warm light filled the cavity she’d been placed in. Her fingers scratched at the dirt encasing them, confirming that it was growing steadily softer as it thawed. But the pace was far slower than she liked. It was going to be a race to see if she could succeed before her foxfire ran dry.

A scared voice in her head whispered that she shouldn’t be doing this at all. Levi was going to discover her. He might already be watching her in secret, holding back laughter at how stupid his new fucktoy was for thinking she could escape him. And it wasn’t him, then it would be that, that **thing** called Celeste. She’d already hunted down the girl as easily as a limping prey animal, and that was when Hanabi still had all her strength, plenty of foxfire, clothes, and self-respect. And her fox skin. Even if she did get away, Levi had stashed her skin somewhere, and she didn’t dare go searching for it. The quickly vanishing reservoir of foxfire inside of her was the last she’d ever have, and this trembling human body was going to be her only one forever.

But still she continued. It wasn’t bravery motivating her, or the desire to overcome Levi and prove her worth. It was just simple cowardice. As terrified as she was about what Levi was going to do to her for attempting to escape, his attempts to scare her into submission had backfired. If he’d talked about letting her go eventually, or given any indication that obedience would mean eventually he’d stop being so cruel, then she would have meekly accepted her fate. But the future he’d laid out for her was so manifestly horrible and final that she **had** to try and get away. It was the same instinctive drive towards survival that made her animal brethren chew their own legs off to escape traps.

The foxfire inside of her flickered and died, all of it spent. It was now or never. Hanabi strained, not with her broken limbs, but with her tails, scraping and digging into the dirt around her. It felt like trying to chop logs with a paper fan, and the soil grew less malleable by the second as the winter cold crept back into it, but she was making progress, and her bones began to slowly knit back together as her dirt prison crumbled around her.

Last but not least, the white fox eased her tails out of the knots Levi had tied them in. Even fueled by terror induced adrenaline, it was a slow grueling process that left her panting for breath before the first knot was undone. But it worked. Hours after she’d been buried in the earth, her hands quietly broke through the surface, and she pulled herself out of the hole with all the care of a surgeon. She didn’t spare a moment to look in the direction Levi had gone, or glance around for her fox skin. The thought of striking back never even crossed her mind. Hanabi just padded away into the forest, naked, dirty, and cold, with her assailant’s cum still a nauseating stickiness between her legs and a bitter coating inside her mouth.


	4. Chapter 4 - Decisions Made

“You know, Delphy,” Tanya said casually, “sometimes, if I didn’t know better, I might get the impression that you don’t actually enjoy making me cum!”

Astaria grit her teeth. “That is because I do not.”

“Awwww, don’t be a grouchy pants.” Tanya rubbed the dragon’s stomach. “You’re so **good** at it! Everybody’s got some kinda special skill, right? You’re amazing at all sorts of things, but your bestest talent, from where I’m sitting, is your uncanny ability to make my pussy gush. You should embrace it!”

“I would prefer to take that strap-on and determine how talented I am at shoving it down your throat,” Astaria replied calmly. “And test the adage ‘practice makes perfect’ while I am at it.”

The white winged woman giggled. “I’ve heard worse ideas. I bet if we changed places, you could show me a real good time with this, huh?”

“There is only one way to find out.” That prompted more giggling.

Astaria was spending the evening engaging in an activity that had become increasingly common: being raped by Tanya. They were in the madwoman’s suite, the one within the section of the Paradisium that had been cordoned off for Paragon’s use only, and seated together on the couch. That is, Tanya was sitting on the couch, and Astaria was in Tanya’s lap, her back to the woman while she fucked herself on her strap-on.

“I tell you what, Delphy,” Tanya said once her giggles had passed. “Things ever go topsy-turvy around here and you end up in charge of me, you go ahead and pound me as long and hard as you like. I promise you’ll hear no complaints about it from me.” Astaria flinched as the woman began kissing the side of her neck. “But for now, my horny little pet…” Tanya’s finger hooked into the dragon’s clit ring. “This tight cunt is mine.”

Pain spiked through Astaria’s body as the dark haired girl gave the ring a light tug. Her insides involuntarily clenched the buried strap-on, and Tanya purred in response. “Mmm, see what I mean, Delphy? Your cunt loves me. Sometimes it just needs to be smacked around a little to remember.” Her other hand did just that, delivering an openhanded slap to Astaria’s pubic mound.

Astaria bounced up and down on the fake cock like the girl wanted, and felt her shiver with pleasure beneath her. She couldn’t tell if she hated doing this more for Tanya or her father. When she rode Karakostas, he rarely spoke to her or even acknowledged her presence, save for nonverbal commands to change her pace or positioning, and the squirting of his cum into her backside at the end. He usually treated raping his daughter as a biological function no different or more important than using the bathroom. Talking to her would be like making conversation with the urinal.

Tanya was very different. “Give me some sugar,” she encouraged, and Astaria reluctantly turned her head so that she could share an openmouthed kiss with the girl. Tanya’s tongue eagerly explored her mouth while her one hand continued tugging and twisting on the clit piercing to make Astaria squirm. Her other hand played with the woman’s breasts, teasing her nipples with her finger pads and nails. After a minute she pulled back and kissed the tip of her nose. “Mmm, and don’t neglect my poor ass, Delphy. It needs some of your expert attention too.”

Astaria’s face grew slightly flushed. Her tail was not prehensile and had a limited range of movement, but Tanya had decided it should be used to pleasure her as well. The tip of it was currently buried in the sadistic girl’s asshole, wriggling around to help stimulate her. The dragon moved it a little faster, massaging Tanya’s rectum for her.

“See?” Tanya teased. “There’s yet another talent: being a butt plug! Your entire body is so good to my ass and pussy. Seriously, I’ve sampled a lot of the Paradisium’s wares, and even with this cock on, I usually need to finish myself with my fingers or get someone to give me a solid tongue lashing. But between this soft twat, and sweet mouth, and ripe tits, and even that hardworking tail, my pussy is all hot and ready without a single touch! You’re a real special girl, Delphy.”

“Am I meant to be glad that I can bring such joy to a vile monster?” Astaria retorted. “If there were any justice in the world, you would never know pleasure again.” She held the same sentiment for her father, but just speaking out of turn with him was cause for brutal punishment. A comment as disrespectful as that would have her marked as meat before she’d finished talking.

“Oh Delphy,” Tanya said, amused. “If there were any justice in the world, it would be a **very** different place. We live in a world that rewards cruelty with wealth and power, and has harsh lessons for naive girls like you that thought they could succeed without ever having to play the game. Don’t hate me just for being good at living in it.”

Unlike Karakostas, Tanya outright encouraged Astaria to talk back, and the few times she was punished for it were more about Tanya enjoying an excuse to indulge in sadism than any attempt to correct the dragon’s behavior. There was an uncomfortable dichotomy between the two people who controlled her. With her father, Astaria could sink into her role and perform it with almost no conscious thought required, unfazed by the painful, degrading tasks she performed, but in so doing she lost a little of herself every time. Every day she grew closer to becoming the empty, dead eyed slave he wanted for an incubator.

With Tanya, she couldn’t escape the humiliation and rage of her situation. The girl gleefully rubbed her nose in it, delighting in causing the dragon misery and reminding her how far she’d fallen. But the constant provocation and interaction also meant that Astaria felt more like herself when she was around Tanya than she had in years. The thought brought little comfort: the girl wasn’t doing it out of kindness or sympathy. She just enjoyed watching her victims suffer, and a docile fucktoy wasn’t nearly as much fun.

As if hearing her thoughts, Tanya giggled. “Feel like playing a game, Delphy? What do you think will happen if Kitkat goes to enjoy you later and finds your pussy basted with my gooey cum?”

The thought made Astaria shiver. The fake semen from the device Tanya wore couldn’t impregnate her, but her father would take no heed of that. He considered Astaria’s womb to belong to him alone, not even to Astaria, and he’d see it as a mocking insult, a challenge to his claim. He’d be furious with Tanya, but since he was bound by their contract, he’d take it out on his daughter instead. It wouldn’t be the first time that Tanya had finished in her in that way, but even she did it only rarely, and always gave the dragon ample time to clean herself out before her next meeting with Karakostas. If she wasn’t allowed to do that this time, the consequences would be immediate and severe.

“…What do you want?” Astaria asked. She knew all too well by now that there was no point trying to dissuade the girl when she got an idea in her head. The fastest way to get through this was to play along.

“Just a little pop quiz. You lose, and I give you a consolation cream pie for you and Kitkat to bond over later. You win, and mmm, I’ll give your guts another one of those warm cum baths they love so much instead. Tell me two, no, three things about the Paradisium that your dad wouldn’t want me to know. And make it quick because…” She moaned theatrically into the dragon’s ear. “The train’s leaving the station soon.”

Astaria’s mind raced to put her thoughts in order. The request wasn’t unexpected, even if the framing of it was. At Tanya’s insistence, the dragon had spent the last month deliberately eavesdropping on her father’s conversations, and sometimes going through his notes when she was certain he wouldn’t notice. She passed off what she’d learned every few days, when Karakostas was busy with private matters and she could sneak off to Tanya’s quarters for a few hours.

“He has been looking into Paragon’s Board of Directors,” she told Tanya. “Just some private investigators so far. I think he is trying to dredge up dirt in case he needs leverage later.”

The girl sighed. “Have I mentioned how stupid your father is? Like we need **him** getting involved in all this. Well, guess I’ve got some PIs to kill next week! What else?”

“He had two vulpan guards executed a few days ago for cornering and raping some of the servants while off duty. He ordered them secretly vivisected first so that he could try and study the artificial marbles inside them.” After hearing what the two of them had done, Astaria had felt little sympathy for what she understood had been a very slow and agonizing experiment for them.

“Mmm. If he thinks he can figure out my recipe, good luck,” Tanya said. “Maybe I should scrawl a greeting on the next one I stick in one of his people. Almost there, Delphy, you and me both.”

Astaria needed a third secret, but her mind was blank. Those were the only two things of note since her last meeting with Tanya. She wondered if the girl had already known that, and deliberately demanded three to make her fail. But if Tanya already knew what she was going to say, why did she even need to ask? She felt like if she knew more about how Tanya’s ability to see the future worked, then maybe she’d be able to find a weakness to be exploited. But that wasn’t what mattered right now. Something her father wouldn’t want Tanya to know…

Maybe she was thinking about this the wrong way.

“He’s still very angry with you for tricking him into sending Doval to Japan,” she said. “Angry enough to want revenge.”

Tanya clicked her tongue. “That’s your third thing, Delphy? I knew he was going to be pissed at me before I even lied to him!”

There was an undercurrent of amusement in the girl’s tone that told Astaria she was on the right track. “You didn’t ask for new information,” she retorted. “Only to name things he wouldn’t want you to know.”

The winged girl laughed out loud. “That’s right, I didn’t! Good girl!”  
  
“It was all a test,” Astaria accused, certain of it now. “You already knew everything I had to tell you.”  
  
Tanya made no attempt to deny it. “I **did** call it a pop quiz, after all. You think too much in straight lines, Delphy. You need to learn to be more outside the box. Forget about Kitkat making you his slave; if you can’t learn to be at least a little devious, he could hand over the keys to the Paradisium today and you’d have lost the entire place before the weekend. It would be downright cruel of me not to help you out, if and when you become more than just his fleshlight. You’re welcome, by the way. Now treat yourself to a sperm enema.”

Her face red, Astaria lifted herself off of the fake cock, repositioned slightly, and then sat back down, letting the thing sink into her asshole. Since both Karakostas and Tanya used it regularly, it easily accepted the strap-on. It was shameful, even, how adroitly it swallowed the entire cock from tip to base and then tightly hugged it, as though she wanted to wring its contents out. That was her father’s doing, and thousands of hours practice pleasing him. He expected clockwork like perfection from her in all things, even the elasticity of her body, and did not take failure well. By now, even a conscious effort not to perform couldn’t stop her from falling into the patterns of a well trained fucktoy.

“You little fibber,” Tanya teased. “Pretending you’re not in love with me and my cock here. It’s adorable the way you play hard to get. But once it’s back here, you just can’t help yourself, can you?”

“You know… that is not true,” Astaria breathed as she involuntarily rode the strap-on hard. She wished that she could believe it. The wretched truth was that while her sessions with Tanya were full of pain and humiliation, they were also… pleasant, sometimes, a little. Perhaps more than sometimes and more than a little. From the very beginning, the dark haired girl had viewed their trysts as a sort of game, where the goal was to break Astaria’s resolve and make her enjoy herself, even if only for a few seconds. Astaria had resisted, but Tanya always knew exactly what to do to get her aroused, and her resistance had only grown weaker over time as her body came to associate the girl’s touch with pleasure.

By now, and to her great shame, the only question was whether she would find pleasure despite that pain and humiliation, or because of it. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference between the three when she was with Tanya. Smacks and pinches could feel almost as good as kisses and licks sometimes, and when Tanya teased her mercilessly, it wasn’t only her face that grew flushed and hot.

Astaria tried to view her actions in a more positive light. The sooner she made Tanya finish, the sooner this would be over. Logically speaking, pleasing Tanya was her best course of action. If she told herself that enough times, perhaps she could convince herself that logic had anything to do with her behavior, instead of ingrained obedience and the wetness between her thighs. “You disgust me.”

“Mmm hmmm,” Tanya purred into her ear. “I know. That’s part of what makes you so… much… fun…!” Hot cum sluiced the dragon’s bowels, and Astaria stiffened. She tried to stop herself from massaging the strap-on as it spurted its fake payload. She didn’t need to encourage Tanya to empty every drop of the stuff into her, didn’t need to prolong the girl’s orgasm for as long as possible to reward her for her gift of cum. But she found herself doing it anyway.

Tanya yanked hard on her clit ring, and Astaria tried to brace, but it was no good. She was too aroused, and the sudden burst of pain pushed her over the edge, making her squirm in unasked for pleasure and join Tanya in moaning out loud.

Both women panted silently for a minute after their orgasms had passed. One with a sense of relaxed pleasure, the other with exhaustion and shame and guilt… and pleasure of her own, no matter how much she wanted to deny it. “You’re… always such a good fuck, Delphy,” Tanya said eventually, and kissed the side of her neck again.”The softest, sweetest, and loveliest pet a girl could ask for. Now clean up after yourself, if you please.”

Astaria nodded and let herself slip off of Tanya’s lap and onto her knees, using the opportunity to extract her tail from the girl’s ass as well. She twisted around to regard the strap-on and begin bathing the dirty thing with her tongue. She went at the task with professional efficiency, even when Tanya started softly humping her face. In that regard, she and Karakostas were nearly identical; it was exceedingly rare for Astaria’s mouth to get near either one of them without being used to make them cum.

The **way** that the girl humiliated her was the worst part. If she’d just insulted Astaria, called her awful and stupid and worthless, her words wouldn’t affect the dragon at all. Even the harshest insult was nothing compared to the way her father looked at her. But Tanya was too… nice. Astaria hadn’t realized how easy it was to insult someone with compliments before her alliance with Tanya had begun. The girl would talk about how lucky she was to own someone as amazing as Astaria, how good it felt to be with her, how proud she was of her pet and how much she adored her. She lavished the dragon with praise and affection, as though she truly cared about her. The way that she spoke almost made the idea of being owned sound pleasant, as though it could be a loving relationship no worse or less intimate than any other, merely different.

If words like that had come from anyone else, Astaria might have called them romantic. She might not have felt such shame at being labeled a pet, and even worse shame at sometimes enjoying the experience of it. But they came from Tanya, and she knew all too well what kind of person the girl really was. She was a cold, calculating monster, and nothing that she said ever really meant anything. It was always just a means to an end, a way to push things towards her desired outcome. Whatever Tanya wanted from her, her visions told her that she could get it by acting this way, and that was the one and only motivation behind her apparent kindness.

But knowing that as a logical fact, and not being affected by it, were two very different things. For a woman like Astaria, who’d spent most of her life surrounded by servants and the last few years by tormentors, her relationship with Tanya was the closest she’d ever come to having a genuine friend, not counting fleeting acquaintances like her fellow contestants in the Paradisium Game years ago. And to her deep discomfort, being around the girl was enjoyable for reasons beyond just the physical pleasure that so frequently accompanied their time together. Whatever dark goals might motivate her behavior, Tanya was still charming and intelligent.

“Tanyaaaaaa,” complained an unfamiliar voice behind Astaria, “I’m hungryyyy.” A young woman that appeared to be about Tanya’s age, wearing only a long t-shirt that went down to her knees, appeared from the bedroom doorway. Her brown hair was matted and tangled, as though she’d just been sleeping on it, and her eyes were only half open. Brown fox ears were nestled in her hair, and nine tails dragged behind her.

”I’m sorry, kiddo,” Tanya said with what sounded like genuine sympathy. “Dinner’s gonna be arriving in just a few minutes, I promise. You have a good nap?”

A childlike smile appeared on the brunette’s face, and her tails rose from the carpet to swish eagerly. “Yeah, I dreamt we went to the amusement park again. You got me more candy cotton and this time the roller coasters went upside down and sideways and stuff.”

“Mmm, that does sound fun! Tell you what: go wash up, make sure to take your medicine, and by the time you get out the food will be here and you can tell me all the details, okay?”

“Okay,” said the girl happily, nodding her head. “Who’s the green lady?”

“This is Astaria.” Tanya tousled the dragon’s hair. “She’s a very good girl who plays lots of grownup games with me. And Astaria, this is Nami, who is **also** a very good girl. Poor thing was cooped up in Paragon for the last few months, but I finally got to bring her here a couple days ago.”

Astaria let her head slip off of Tanya’s shaft. “It is… good to meet you,” she said slowly. Everything about the girl’s mannerisms suggested a young child, but she was clearly an adult. Her behavior was a mystery, but not half as much as Tanya’s, who sounded almost motherly right now.

“Can I play some grownup games with you too?” Nami asked Tanya eagerly.

“When you’re older,” Tanya said, in the resigned tone of someone giving a familiar answer to a familiar question. “Now go wash up, brat, or you’re gonna be sad when the food shows up and you’re not ready to eat.”

“Okayyyyy.” The girl happily padded barefoot towards the bathroom.

“Who is-mmmph!” Astaria’s question was interrupted by Tanya forcing her dildo back down the green haired woman’s throat.

Tanya winked at her. “That mouth’s got better things to do than talk right now, Delphy. We really don’t have a lot of time before dinner, and I’d love to put another load of cum in that belly before it gets here. So let’s work quick, okay?” She gripped Astaria’s horns in both hands and began using them to roughly pound the dragon’s throat.

“Anyway, that girl is a special project of mine,” she continued. “See, the old vulpan, they used foxes like her to make their marbles. They’d slice off slivers of their soul until there was nothing left. Three years ago, Nami wasn’t much more than a blowup doll. But once we figured out how to consolidate the marbles, that left a lot of foxfire with nothing to do, and it all came floating back home.”

She pulled Astaria’s head closer, until she was grinding the woman’s face against her. “Stick that tongue out, Delphy, just the way I like it.” Astaria obeyed, extending her tongue to reach Tanya’s wet slit just below the strap-on. The dark haired girl moaned as the dragon’s mouth pleasured her two times over.

“Poor Nami got her soul back, but it jumbled her brains a bit. Lost most of her memory and, well, you saw what she’s like now. She’s growing up fast, though. She was like a toddler at first, now she’s up to at least six or seven. Give her another decade and she’ll probably be right as rain. Almost there, Delphy, just a little more!”

Astaria felt the hot juice spurt into her throat. She still wasn’t sure what the stuff even was, only that it was salty and slimy and tasted almost as awful as her father’s seed. Tanya clutched her horns tight, happily slapping the dragon’s wet face against her soaked crotch as she came. “That’s it,” she breathed. “Wouldn’t have been very fair of me not to feed my other pet her dinner too, right?”

The dragon coughed when she was released, careful not to trigger her collar. The throatfuck had been humiliating, but she’d barely noticed it. Her attention was wholly focused on the new side of Tanya she’d just seen. Anyone else and she would’ve taken the girl’s role in caring for Nami as simple compassion. But not Tanya. There had to be more going on, but she had no idea what yet.

She was still coughing when there was a knock on the door. “That must be them!” Tanya said cheerfully.

Astaria’s face burned with shame, but she forced the words out anyway. “May… May I have some too? Please?” She’d been fed almost nothing but cum for the last two years. If there was even a chance of eating real food for once, she’d ignore her pride and beg for it.

Tanya grinned at her. “Aww Delphy, of course you can! As much as you want, assuming you can convince Nami to share.” She raised her voice. “Nami, di-“

There was a loud and angry noise as the door to her quarters was violently ripped off of its hinges.

The woman who sauntered in through the open doorway had her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a servant’s uniform, though her confident demeanor made her look nothing like the cringing workers who normally roamed the halls. She was tall, American, and had a smirk on her face as she brandished a pistol at the white winged girl. “Tanya Petrov?”

“The one and only,” Tanya said cheerfully, showing no sign of distress at what had just happened. Astaria herself was frozen, uncertain of what to do. The intruder’s intentions were obvious, and a month ago the dragon would have cheered her on, even knowing that she would not be spared from the violence about to ensue. But the thought of Tanya Petrov’s death didn’t hold the same appeal it once had. Was this the very reason the girl had been showing her kindness, so that Astaria would hesitate and not seize this opportunity to help rid the world of her?

Like it or not, her pure hatred of Tanya had become diluted over time, her feelings twisted into something far more complicated. Did the girl deserve to die here and now? Undoubtedly. But did Astaria **want** the girl to die? That… was a question for which she had no ready answer, and one that she was not going to have time to ponder.

Three men, also in servant uniforms, came in behind the woman with their own weapons drawn, and fanned out to block all the exits from the room. “This is nothing personal,” said the blonde calmly. “We’re just here to do a job.”

“Oh, no worries, no worries,” Tanya assured her. “Nothing personal for me either. Just gotta keep my baby girl fed, you know?”

The man closest to the bathroom screamed as a large brown fox burst through the door to tackle him. The woman kept her gun trained on Tanya, but the other two reacted immediately, spraying the fox with gunfire. Nami didn’t even seem to notice the bullets as she bent down and almost playfully ripped the man’s throat out with her teeth.

“I’d put the gun down and my hands up if I were you,” Tanya told the woman cheerfully. “I’ve been teaching her to spare folks who do that, but it’s been a while since breakfast, so she might be feeling a little unruly. You know how kids get.”

The assassin pulled the trigger instead, destroying the couch cushion behind Tanya. The girl herself had shifted her head almost as if by accident, resulting in the bullet missing her by inches. The woman emptied the rest of her clip with no further success. “Kitkat did warn you I’m a precog before he sent you after me, right?” Tanya asked. “Or were you just a test run to see what I can do?”

The woman stared at Tanya for a moment, completely unharmed and surrounded by bullet holes, then sighed. “Fuck.” She dropped the gun and raised her hands into the air. The other two weren’t so quick, and blood sprayed as another man went down. The third lost his nerve completely and bolted out of the apartment, but Nami chased after him. There was a strangled cry, and then she reappeared dragging his corpse in with her by the teeth.

“Can I eat all three of them, Tanya?” The woman’s pet gumiho asked excitedly, her muzzle red with gore. “Can I?”

“Not just yet, Nami,” Tanya said, and looked down at Astaria, still huddled on the floor in shock. “Delphy here was just telling me how hungry she is. You want something, Delphy? Maybe a leg or two?”

Astaria vomited.

* * *

A short while later, Tanya, Astaria, and the unknown assassin were all in Tanya’s bedroom. With Nami nearby as motivation, the blonde had reluctantly obeyed Tanya’s commands. She was now naked and spread eagled on the bed, her limbs handcuffed to the bed posts and her ponytail tied off to the headboard behind her. Her body was well toned and bore multiple scars, the lean frame of someone who spent their days on their feet and on the move. “I won’t talk,” she said, staring up at the ceiling with stoic defiance.

Tanya patted her head. “That’s okay, Nessie. I don’t need you to say a word.” The blonde tried not to react, but the way her eyes tightened told Astaria that Tanya had named her correctly.

“How is it that you know her name?” the dragon asked. “I do not recognize her face; she is not a servant here. Do you know her from elsewhere?” She took another careful bite of her sandwich. It wasn’t much of a meal, just two pieces of dry bread with a few thin slices of meat and cheese between them, but compared to her usual diet, she felt like she was dining on ambrosia, and she was going to savor every moment of it.

She had Nami to thank for the meal; the girl had become distressed and nearly started crying when she saw Astaria’s reaction to her feeding. It hadn’t taken her long to calm down, but when she’d realized that Astaria had been hungry, she’d begged her guardian to let the woman eat something. The dragon had no idea if Tanya would’ve eventually allowed her real food even without Nami’s intervention, but once the girl had started pleading, the dark haired oracle had seemed helpless to refuse her.

“Vanessa? Nah, you just saw our first meeting.” Tanya casually flicked one of the bound woman’s nipples, and her handcuffs all rattled a little. “Buuuuut, the thing about my new friend here is, these nice firm teats of hers are very sensitive.” She flicked one again with the same result. “So while she’s been trained to resist torture, after a little experimentation, I’d discover that sticking a few pins in them was enough to make her sing. Here, I’ll show you.” She opened the bedroom drawer and took out a piercing needle. “Had this delivered last week just for her.”

The blonde’s eyes flickered towards it, and her expression of calm grew slightly forced. “If you don’t need me to talk, and you already know what I’d say, then why torture me at all?”

Tanya smiled, and bent down to lick and suck on Vanessa’s left breast. “Mmm, becaush ish fuhn, shilly” she said. The assassin’s entire body went rigid as Tanya delicately closed her teeth around her stiff nipple and tugged, making the breast stand up. She put the piercing needle against the base of the nipple, and the entire bed shook violently as it penetrated the flesh. Vanessa closed her eyes, trying not to show how much it still hurt. The dark haired girl pulled a small ring from the same drawer the needle was in, and none too gently inserted it into the new piercing. “See?” she asked, lightly tugging on the ring and clearly enjoying the way her captive flinched each time. “She looks cute with pierced nips, right? And now the other.”

“It won’t work,” Vanessa insisted after both bloody rings were in. “No matter what you do to me, I won’t reveal the name of my employer. If you really can see the future, you have to know that much.”

Tanya shrugged. “Maybe? To be honest, I don’t see any futures where I bother asking. I already know Kitkat hired you.”

“He would not dare,” Astaria blurted out before she could stop herself. “It would mean breaking his word! And, and if he **was** somehow able to do that, he wouldn’t leave your death to someone else.”

“My sweet, innocent cunt licker,” Tanya said with a grin. “You’re almost as cute as Nami. Your dad can’t come after me directly, but if he tells someone else what a bother I am, and that person tells someone else, and **that** person tells someone else, and eventually someone gets the idea that they could curry favor with him by having me eliminated… is that really breaking his word? Or is there enough ambiguity there for it to slip by?”  
  
“I… do not know,” Astaria admitted. “Possibly…”

“See, this is exactly what I was talking about before. Your dad knows how to be devious. I guarantee you that you could count on your fingers the number of times keeping his word has actually stopped him from doing whatever he wanted. And that a hundred times as often, his reputation for honor has helped him screw someone over. You’re right about one thing, though: there’s no way Kitkat really thought this was going to succeed. Nessie’s just here to test the waters, get a sense of what he’s dealing with. He’s probably not even expecting to kill me while I’m here. He’s a patient bugger, you know? He can wait until our agreement’s over, maybe even give me a decade or two after that, and then bam! Shows up on my doorstep one day all quoting Biblical passages and stuff, with six different contingency plans to take me down.”

Vanessa’s face had lost some of its color as it sunk in that Tanya really didn’t want to know anything. Her knowledge was one of the only currencies she had right now to trade for her life and wellbeing, and the winged girl had just made it clear that it was worthless. “I could be of use to you,” she said. She tried to sound as stoic as before, but the way her eyes darted between Astaria and Tanya betrayed her anxiety. “Many people have paid a fortune for my services in the past. I’m willing to offer them at a considerable discount.”

“You would offer yourself to someone who just killed three of your companions?” Astaria asked skeptically. Her sandwich was down to its last bite, and she regarded it longingly before popping it into her mouth and slowly chewing

Vanessa shrugged. “They were just hired muscle, and they knew the risks. Like I said, this was nothing personal. I only tried to kill you because someone paid me to do it, and as far as I’m concerned, that contract’s now null and void. People like me are loaded guns; we don’t care who pulls the trigger or who we’re pointed at, we just do our job.”

“If we call your performance out there a job interview, you don’t exactly come off too impressive,” Tanya pointed out.

“Only because I was not informed of your abilities or your bodyguard,” the blonde said coolly, a touch of pride in her tone. “Like you said, I wasn’t sent to succeed. If I’d been properly briefed, you would be dead right now.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Tanya ran a hand across the woman’s stomach. “But your incompetence aside, I **am** interested in hiring you. What are your rates?”

“That depends on the job,” Vanessa said, relaxing slightly. “My default fee is two hundred thousand dollars, American. That gets you anyone you want above the age of eighteen dead.”

“You do not kill children, then?” Astaria asked.

Tanya grinned. “Silly Delphy, she charges **extra** for children, don’t you?”

“Exactly,” agreed the assassin. “As well as any other special requests. If you want the target to die slowly, if you want it to look like an accident, if you want a video recording, if you want them to know why they’re being killed… most of my clients are looking for more than just a bullet to the back of the head.”  
  
“Mmm hmm. And how much do you charge for anal?” Tanya asked.

Vanessa’s eyes narrowed. “Are you calling me a whore?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it!” the white winged girl assured her with a smile. “Whores get paid. I’m just wondering, hypothetically, how much you think your holes are worth. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to give you a single cent for them, American or otherwise. It’s just my natural curiosity talking.”

“That would be a mistake,” Vanessa told her, full of indignation and an undercurrent of fear. “I’m not some… some subhuman mongrel you can pick up off the street and slap a collar on. I have money, influence, and the skills necessary to kill everyone you know and love. You beat me today; I get that. But don’t bite off more than you can chew. Take the win and let me go.”

“I won our first game,” Tanya said. “But now I’m gonna go for a best of three, kay?” She looked over at Astaria. “You wanna help, Delphy? I know she’s just your type.”  
  
“My… type?” the dragon asked.

“Yeah, she’s all like evil and stuff, isn’t she? And you’re little miss gonna save the world. Even a subby like you must be getting all juicy at the thought of tearing into her, right?”

Astaria frowned. It was true that after hearing from Vanessa, she was feeling considerably less bad about what must be in store for the woman. And there was a part of her, the remnants of her pride that burned every time she had to follow another disgusting order, that was tempted at the opportunity to be the one in charge for once. But she shook that desire away. “No. I will not sink to your level, no matter what she has done. There is no excuse for torturing another sentient being.”

Tanya gave her a look with something approaching genuine scorn, then shrugged. “Okay, I’ll let her go.”

“That easily?” Astaria asked suspiciously.

“Sure, why not? Nessie’s not gonna come after me again no matter what somebody offers, are you, girl?” Vanessa quickly shook her head. “See? She’ll go after other people instead. No one you or I will ever meet. Let’s see… there’s the husband and wife over in Portugal that she’s going to kill next week. The contract’s only for the husband – some complicated labor dispute – but the client wants to be sure his death sends a message, and a big gory bedroom tableau for the neighbors to find a few days later will do it in spades. And then there’s the mistress in Hong Kong that’s refusing to get an abortion after her lover insisted on riding bareback. He’s convinced that she just wants to use the baby to blackmail him in the future, so he’s gonna nip that potential problem in the bud and make sure it can’t happen again.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Astaria demanded.  
  
“Because actions have consequences, Delphy,” Tanya said, as though it was obvious. “Now me, I don’t really care who Nessie kills. We’re all maggot food eventually, right? But all that stuff matters to you for some reason, so I figured you should know what you’re asking for.” She beamed at Astaria as she dropped the handcuff key into her hand. “There, now it’s your decision. You can let her keep murdering folks left and right, or you can give me the go ahead on raping and torturing her.”

“I refuse to accept that those are my only options,” said the green haired woman defiantly. “You could find a way to reach a peaceful agreement wherein no one needs to suffer. At the very least, you could keep her confined here without doing her harm.”

Tanya wagged her finger at her while clicking her tongue. “That’s not how it works, my sweet little subby. You can’t change who we are: let Nessie go and she keeps killing, keep her here and I abuse her. The only power you have over this situation rests in whether you use that key or not.” She winked at the woman. “I don’t deserve my powers, remember? So let’s see how **you** would handle a bit of foresight.”

Astaria looked despondently down at the key she held. There was no way out of this… even refusing to play along would mean consciously surrendering the assassin’s fate to Tanya’s will. No matter what the dragon chose, she would share responsibility for the consequences now. “These people you say Vanessa will kill… if she is not there, won’t the client simply hire someone else?”

“Sometimes, sure,” Tanya said with a shrug. “But a lot of them won’t. The new guy hired to off the husband is a real dummy, manages to break in on the one night a month they’re over playing Sueca at a friend’s house. Gets himself arrested and squeals about everything. And that mistress is already making plans to flee the country. The extra day she gets thanks to her lover having to dig deeper into his connections is all the time that she needs. The kid turns out to be an adorable little brat, by the way.”

“You already know everything that will happen,” Astaria said bitterly. ”Why not just tell me what I pick?”

“Because getting to choose is the fun part, Delphy!” Tanya told her, eyes sparkling. “Isn’t it great being in charge of things for once, knowing that **you** get to determine who lives and who dies and who suffers? What you’re doing right now is how I get to live my life alllllll the time! It’s a lot to take in at first, but once you get used to it…” She twirled in place with girlish glee. “You get to make everyone dance and dance and dance…”

If what Tanya said was true, Astaria no longer had to wonder why the girl was so erratic, or why the oracles of old were so often described as mad. For the first time in her life, she felt something that could almost be described as pity for the girl, the same kind of pity she’d feel for a rabid animal. This single impossible choice made Astaria sick to her stomach, and she knew that whichever option she picked would haunt her for a long time. Tanya made a thousand choices like this every day. If Astaria had been cursed with that much power as a child, would she have been able to keep her sanity? She doubted it.

There was no getting out of this. There was nothing Astaria could think to do now but to try and figure out the right answer. What was the moral choice? Assuming that Tanya wasn’t lying about the outcomes, by numbers alone it was better that Vanessa not leave this room a free woman. But she couldn’t base her decision on numbers alone. A life was more than a statistic. She had no responsibility to protect those that Vanessa might hurt if she was freed. But that didn’t make their pain any less real. Wouldn’t Astaria be helping this woman just because she was right here while the lives she would take were faceless and nameless?

“I don’t want to rush your little mental ethics course,” Tanya said eventually. “But Kitkat won’t be busy forever. He’ll be back in his chambers in less than three hours, and he’s expecting to find his fucktoy ready and waiting. Don’t worry, there’s no right answer here, just a bunch of wrong ones. You could trace every choice, every consequence, every unintended outcome… trying to see where it all goes, trying to figure out that perfect choice that makes everything right… and you know what you’d find, Delphy? That there is no perfect outcome. Life is nothing but a series of bad decisions; getting to peek at the back of the book doesn’t change that.”

“I… will not help you hurt this woman,” Astaria said slowly, feeling as though the words were killing something inside her. “But I will not ask for her freedom either. She made her choice when she came to the Paradisium to kill you. She must accept the consequences for that.”

“Wait,” Vanessa said quickly. “We can work something out. If I take a sabbatical for a few weeks, that’ll do the same thing, won’t it? Or you could give me a list of people not to kill, or clients not t-aaagh!” She screamed as Tanya unexpectedly gave one of her nipple rings a sharp yank.

“Even if you did, Nessie, that would just change **which** people died,” Tanya said with mock sweetness. “We could keep playing that game all day. Now, I suggest you stop talking; your mouth is going to be getting a workout soon, and we don’t want to tire out those jaw muscles too fast, do we?” Vanessa’s face tightened and she looked like she was about to say something nasty, but she bit the response back. “Good girl! Sooooo, like I was saying, we’re gonna play a little game. Since Delphy doesn’t want to play, she gets to be the referee!” She patted the cordless alarm clock on the nightstand. “She’s gonna keep an eye on this, and let us know when two hours have passed. Once that happens, you can head on home and never worry about me ever again. Unless, of course, you decided at some point during those two hours that you should swear an oath to be my slave forever and ever. When that happens-” She giggled and winked. “Sorry, **if** that happens, you’ll be spending the rest of the night right here getting to know your new mistress’s pussy. Sound good?”

Vanessa clenched her teeth and gave a tiny nod.

Tanya turned back to Astaria. “Nami’s probably getting a little antsy on her own. Go fix her a glass of water, let her know we’re alright.” She offered Astaria the alarm clock.

The dragon was confident that Tanya would be able to break the woman, and in no hurry to find out how, so she didn’t hesitate to accept the clock and make her way to the kitchen. She filled up a glass in the sink and headed to the other bedroom in the apartment, where the gumiho had been waiting since the attack was over. Her eyes couldn’t help drifting toward the exit, where the door was still off its hinges, but it was only a passing urge. Paradisium security would bring her down before she even made it to the building’s exit, let alone past the multiple security checkpoints, and the restrictions her father would no doubt impose to punish her for the attempt would only make it less likely that a serious chance to escape would ever arise.

She knocked on the bedroom door and it swung open a moment later. Astaria entered the room with no small amount of trepidation. Karakostas had begun researching kitsune right after his deal with Petrov about the vulpan, eager to learn all of their capabilities. That research had included gumiho, and Astaria had picked up enough details while being her father’s cocksheathe to have a good idea how fearsome they were. They possessed strength and speed that far outstripped even the vulpan, and an equally formidable appetite for human flesh. Astaria wasn’t technically human even when trapped in a mostly human shape like this, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t much matter to a gumiho’s taste buds.

Nami’s room was a disconcerting mix of styles. The clothing and the furniture wouldn’t have been out of place in any young woman’s room, but it was also full of toys and stuffed animals and brightly colored posters. Nami herself sat back down on the edge of her bed, holding a thin tablet in her hands. Colorful shapes danced across it in some kind of game, but she seemed to be paying it little attention. “Is Tanya okay?” she asked plaintively.

“Yes, she’s fine,” the dragon said slowly, trying not to think about what she must be up to with Vanessa. “She thought you might be thirsty.” She started to offer the glass of water to the girl, then reconsidered getting so close and placed it on the nearby nightstand instead.

“Thank you,” Nami said, looking back down at her tablet. Astaria nodded politely and quickly turned around to leave. “…You don’t have to be afraid of me,” the gumiho said quietly behind her. “I’m a good girl, I promise. Nami is a good…… a good girl.”

She was making no attempt to hide her clear loneliness, or her desire that Astaria approve of her, and the dragon felt hot shame run down her back. Regardless of what was going on with Nami physically, the girl inside seemed innocent and kind. It was because of her that Astaria had gotten to eat her first real meal in years, and she’d done it out of pure compassion. She turned around to face the brunette. “I am sorry,” she said humbly. “I do not have much experience with gumiho, and I was caught by surprise earlier.”

“It’s okay,” Nami said. “I don’t get hungry. I mean, I do, but not like I used to, I promise. I’m not gonna hurt anyone.”

“That is good,” Astaria said slowly. “Was that Tanya’s doing?”

“Uh huh. She saved me. I was…….” Her eyes became distant. “There were bad people. They hurt me. For fun. Then one day they all went away, and I was alone…” Her face lit up with a smile. “But she came and made me better! She gave me clothes and food and didn’t hurt me even once. And if I’m a good girl and take my medicine, I don’t get more hungry when I eat. Tanya says soon I won’t get hungry at all.”

Astaria carefully considered her next words. “There is a thing inside of you that causes that hunger. A fox marble. Do you know what I’m talking about?” Nami nodded. “It should be possible for you to give that marble away. Then you will feel better, without having to rely on Tanya.”

“No!” Nami said stubbornly. Then, more calmly, “we made a promise, after she saved me. She promised that I can be more than just a good… she promised that I’m special, and important, and that she loves me. And I promised that I would help her someday. If she ever gets in trouble, I’m gonna save her just like she saved me, and I can’t do that as a normal fox.” She gave the green haired woman a determined look. “I don’t wanna be normal. I just wanna be hers.”

Astaria could think of a hundred different anecdotes off the top of her head that she could tell the girl to demonstrate that Tanya wasn’t the benevolent savior she was being made out to be. But she couldn’t bring herself to voice a single one of them. To shatter Nami’s faith in her protector would be an act of cruelty, no matter how well intentioned. A harsh truth was always better than a sweet lie in the end, but could she be certain that Tanya’s behavior was a lie? She had seemed to show the girl genuine affection; perhaps she really did care about her. Even the worst monsters could sometimes open their hearts up to people.

And if she **was** deceiving Nami for some nefarious purpose, would telling the girl truly be an act of kindness? Nami could no more leave the Paradisium of her own volition than Astaria could. If she exposed Tanya’s character, she would not let the girl go, or give up on her plans for her, and Astaria had no means of protecting her. The most likely end result would just be Tanya dropping the charade and treating Nami as viciously as she did everyone else.

Until Astaria understood more, she couldn’t in good conscience interfere. So for now, she simply nodded. “I am very glad that she was able to save you,” she said. “You **are** a special and important girl, Nami, with or without your fox marble.”

The brunette grinned at her and held up her tablet. “Do you wanna play my game with me?”

“Thank you,” Astaria said politely, “but I should return to Tanya.” She didn’t really want to see what Tanya was up to, but she also grew nervous imagining her alone with Vanessa. There had been a manic edge to her interactions with the assassin. Astaria still didn’t understand the twisted affection that Tanya had for her, but between that and their shared desire to keep their relationship hidden, she never went so far as to do something that would cause permanent damage and raise questions. She had no such restrictions on her actions with Vanessa, and Astaria was afraid to see what Tanya’s sadism might look like with nothing to temper it. “But I am sure I will be back here again soon. I would like it very much if we can play then, yes?”

“Sure!” said Nami happily, and her legs swung back and forth as she began tapping things on the screen. Astaria bowed to her and left.

The green haired woman made an important discovery when she returned to Tanya’s bedroom to see how things were progressing: the room had been soundproofed at some point. The moment she opened the door, screams resounded through the previously quiet apartment. And when she looked in and saw the reason why, she very nearly vomited for the second time that day.

“Oh, she’s just being a crybaby,” Tanya told her without looking. “I gave her some anaesthetic and everything.” The girl was using the attached bathroom to wash her hands in the sink, scrubbing away the blood. More of it soaked the sheets of her bed.

She’d amputated Vanessa’s limbs.

The wounds had already been treated and wrapped with gauze, and the smell of burnt flesh suggested they’d been cauterized. The limbless woman was squirming and howling, still bound in place on the bed by her ponytail. There was no more confidence or calm in her expression, only unbridled horror. “Why… why would you do such a thing?” Astaria whispered, stunned by the sight of her.

“Why not?” Tanya said with a shrug. “I thought it might be fun. Couldn’t do it to one of the slaves here without your dad getting cranky, unless they were meat, and most of those women are so dead inside they wouldn’t have such a nice reaction.” As she dried her hands off with a towel, Astaria caught a glimpse of blood and flesh in the bathtub and quickly averted her eyes. She had no desire to see what was left of the woman’s arms and legs.

“So!” Tanya strolled back into the bedroom. “That took, what, twenty minutes? Means I’ve got another hundred on the clock! Let’s relax and enjoy ‘em, Nessie.” She muffled the screaming woman by sitting on her, eagerly humping her crotch against Vanessa’s wailing mouth. “Come on, I didn’t leave you your tongue so you could go and waste it. It’s time to get to know my pussy.”

When Vanessa didn’t give her the response she wanted, Tanya rolled her eyes and hooked two fingers into the woman’s nipple rings. The former assassin’s cries went up an octave as the girl tugged both of them like she wanted to rip them out of her, and then Tanya’s expression melted into a lazy smile. “Muuuuuch better,” she said happily, releasing the nipple rings and patting the woman’s side. “Don’t worry about being clumsy, Nessie: I promise you’ll be getting lots and lots of practice in the days ahead.”

She cocked her head at Astaria. “What’s wrong, Delphy? She’s a bad guy, remember? That means I get to do whatever I want to her and it’s okay!” She clenched Vanessa’s head with her thighs and leaned down to bring her own face to the woman’s crotch. “Mmm, I could get used to this hero stuff…” She bit down on Vanessa’s clitoris. The blonde screamed into her pussy and bucked from side to side, but she was unable to evade Tanya’s teeth nor her wet slit.

Tanya rode the former assassin like that through two orgasms before she let go of Vanessa’s clit. The blonde’s reprieve was short lived, as her tormentor fetched the piercing needle from the nightstand without getting up. A couple minutes and several agonized screams later, a ring dangled from Vanessa’s newly pierced clit.

“Soooo cute,” chirped Tanya as she carefully tied pieces of string to each ring. “You’re gonna love it here, Nessie. You get to just lay around and relax all day, and I know all sorts of ways we can still have fun together.” She looked up at Astaria and winked, gathering all three strings in her hand. “Like horsie rides. Giddy up!”

Vanessa wailed like a banshee as Tanya tanked on all three strings as hard as she could, hard enough to lift the lower half of her torso into the air. She eased up, letting the helpless woman flop back down, then yanked again just as hard. She repeated this over and over, making Vanessa’s body dance in the air while she laughed happily.

By the time the two hours were over, Vanessa had lost her voice from screaming, and all that came out of her mouth were whispery sobs. Tanya hadn’t shown the woman a hint of mercy in all that time, treating her more sadistically than she’d ever played with Astaria. The woman’s breasts were covered in scratches, her stomach in cigarette burns, and her pubic mound in bite marks, all artifacts of Tanya’s “helpful lessons” about how she liked her pussy licked. Vanessa’s face was plastered with the girl’s juices, and her eyes were dull and unfocused by the time Tanya climbed off of her, leaving her exhausted tongue lolling out of her mouth.

“Well, I gotta hand it to you, Nessie,” Tanya said cheerfully, untying her ponytail from the headboard. “You made it through the entire two hours without swearing yourself to me. You win!”

The woman had certainly tried to. For the first hour, whenever she wasn’t too busy screaming to form words, she was begging Tanya to let her give up. No matter how hard she tried, though, the girl pretended she couldn’t make out what she was saying, and eventually Vanessa had accepted that she wasn’t going to be allowed to surrender.

“Guess that means you can leave,” Tanya told her. “Door’s that way, if you forgot. I’ll let you see yourself out.” Vanessa whimpered softly, and a tear ran down her cheek. “What’s that?” the girl asked, putting a hand to her ear. “You had so much fun you wanted to stay?” Vanessa shook her head and croaked something.

“Well, I sure wouldn’t complain about getting such a nice big body pillow for my bed,” Tanya remarked, casually kneading one of the woman’s breasts. “But you should think it over carefully, Nessie. This was just us having a little fun, you know? Your tongue getting to make friends with my twat. You stick around, things are gonna start to get serious. First thing I’ll probably do is roll you over and try out that ass. You sure you’re up for that kind of rough pounding after everything else today?”

“You know that she cannot move,” Astaria said quietly. “You have already won. Why must you continue to mock her?”

“Because winning means I get to do whatever I want,” Tanya said easily. “So why shouldn’t I take my time and enjoy a victory lap?” She flipped Vanessa onto her stomach and rubbed her anus with a thumb. “Yeah, that’s gonna be a nice warm hole to squeeze into. You really should’ve considered being a whore instead of an assassin, Nessie. Quality fuckhole like this, you’d be swimming in cash. Now you won’t be swimming period, right?” She giggled.

Vanessa found enough voice to scream again as Tanya eagerly crammed her thick phallus into her tight backdoor. Once it was all the way in, the girl laid on top of her, palming her breasts from behind while she nuzzled the blonde’s back. “Mmm, now this is the position for me,” she said. “This is how I’m gonna sleep from now on: me hugging my pillow, my pillow hugging my dick, and everything warm and soft inside and out. It’s a damn shame I can’t pee out of this thing, cause then I wouldn’t even need to get up to use the bathroom.”

Her hips began to move back and forth, slowly at first but picking up speed with every thrust. The way Vanessa’s anal ring clung to the shaft, so reluctant to give up every millimeter, told Astaria that the woman had been a virgin back there. “Of course, if you keep feeling this good, it’s gonna be a while before either of us gets any sleep, Nessie.”

“Please…” the woman whispered hoarsely.

“Please what?” Tanya teased. “Please keep you in a garbage can under the sink, and only take you out to fuck, piss in, and smack around for fun? Please see how many more bits I can chop or gouge or burn or rip off without rendering you unfuckable? Please find out just how much tighter I can make you get by playing with your piercings again? Is that what you were gonna ask, Nessie?” The blonde whimpered. “Or were you about to ask me to please fill your sexy ass with some hot sticky cum?”

Vanessa’s voice was small and defeated. “…please… fill my sexy ass with… with hot sticky cum.”

A minute later, her soft grunts told Astaria that Tanya was doing just that. She didn’t pull out when she was done, just continued pumping smoothly in and out of her new toy’s guts, her shaft visibly covered with semen every time she drew back. “You should be getting home, Delphy,” the winged girl said. “Kitkat will be there in twelve minutes, and if you don’t have his cock between your tits in twelve and a half, you won’t be able to sit for a week. Besides, the exciting part is over. All that’s left is to hose down this hole another few times, persuade Nessie that she’s not too good to clean her mess off my cock, and then relax and listen to her cry herself to sleep.”

Astaria felt bad leaving Vanessa – or anyone for that matter – alone with Tanya, but the girl was right: she was out of time. So she reluctantly said “yes, Tanya”, and left the room. The last thing she heard as the door closed was the former assassin quietly begging for more cunnilingus lessons instead, and Tanya laughing and promising her they would have all day tomorrow for that.

On the way out of the apartment, she eyed the closed door to Nami’s room. The girl had no idea what sort of guardian she owed her life to. Astaria still hadn’t decided if it would be kinder to tell her the truth or let her live in blissful ignorance. It was a question without an easy answer, and one that she knew she’d still be turning around in her head tonight while Karakostas continued breaking her down.

Another question plagued her too, one that she knew would also linger for a long time. Tanya Petrov was one of the most powerful people in the world, all but invincible thanks to her abilities, capable of getting anything she wanted just by asking, and unburdened by sanity or conscience.

What sort of plans did someone like that have for a trained gumiho?


	5. Chapter 5 - Aftermath

“Another helping, Flower?” Nobu asked, offering Hanabi the pot of food.

“Thanks, Dad!” the girl said gratefully, holding up her bowl so he could ladle more sukiyaki into it. Even a week after her little incident in the forest, she still felt like she was always hungry. But it was hard to mind that too much when it meant getting to eat more of her father’s home cooking. He was almost always in charge of meals, usually with Hanabi’s assistance. Every so often Kamio got the urge to try and do some cooking himself, but, well… there was more than one soot mark on the ceiling. “Any news about that Levi guy?” she asked as she nibbled on some beef.

“He had a lot of bluster at first, but a few nights in jail fixed that,” Kamio said, still working on his first bowl. It always took him longer to eat than everyone else because he had to sort the food out first, and then eat one category at a time. “I almost feel sorry for the poor man. The way he cried and begged for forgiveness…” he chuckled. “Can you imagine?” Everyone laughed at the idea of someone that pathetic.

“That was very good work you did out there, Hanabi,” Nobu said as he put the pot down on the stove and rejoined them with a fresh bowl of his own. “Who knows what kind of mischief he might have caused if not for you?”

The white haired girl blushed, but there was a smile on her face. “It was no big deal. Just some illusions and stuff. Same old, same old.”

“I wish I could have seen the look on his face when he saw who he was up against,” Kamio said. “Thinking he could go toe to toe with a daughter of a mine! He’ll never make **that** mistake again.” The doorbell rang. “Ah, that must be Tomo. Is there enough sukiyaki left for her? If not, I suppose I could be persuaded to…”

“No,” said Nobu firmly. “There’s still plenty, and besides, I’d sooner roast one of my own tails on the grill than let you cook food for a guest. At least Hanabi and I have developed a tolerance to it.” Everyone laughed again, even Kamio. “Do you mind letting her in, Flower?”  
  
“Not at all!” Hanabi said cheerfully, and rose from her seat after sipping some of the broth. If there really was plenty left, maybe she’d even ask for a third bowl… she opened the front door.

“Did you really think you could just run away?” Levi hissed. The fox girl froze.

The blond man’s hand shot out and grabbed her by the throat. He lifted her up by one hand like she weighed nothing as she gasped for air, his grip an iron vice. “Who told you that you could wear clothes?” he said sourly, grabbing the front of her shirt. One pull and her clothing ripped away, leaving her completely naked. She clawed at his hand on her neck, and attacked him with her tails, but he didn’t even seem to notice her attempts to resist. “Or eat food? I told you before, fox slut, you live on cum now.” He punched her hard in the stomach, and she gagged. A second punch, and her dinner rose up and spewed from her throat. Most of it hit the ground, the rest running down her front. “Filthy little bitch,” he growled.

“I-I’m sorry, master,” Hanabi pleaded. “I’m sorry, I didn’t… I didn’t mean to…”

“Didn’t mean to **what**?” he asked, stepping into the house. Her parents moved aside as he walked her over to the kitchen table and slammed her down on top of it. “Run? Disobey? Pretend you’re anything more than a used fleshlight?”

Hanabi tried to roll off the table to get away, but her arms and legs wouldn’t work. “Please, help me!” she cried out, looking at her parents. They turned away, refusing to meet her gaze.

Levi laughed. “Why the hell would they do that? They’ve had to tolerate you for a hundred long years, slut. You think they ever wanted white furred trash like you for a child?” He rammed into her, pushing her body across the table like a ragdoll and knocking the sukiyaki pot onto the floor.

Nobu sighed and bent down to pick it up. “Can’t even do that much right,” he said bitterly, looking at the mostly empty pot and its spilled contents. “We should’ve done this a long time ago.”

“No!” Hanabi pleaded as she was fucked hard on the kitchen table. “I’m sorry! I, I’ll try better, I promise! Please, please don’t let him rape me!”

“It’s your own fault,” Kamio said calmly, eating from his bowl as he stood and watched. “We tried to help you, but you were a lost cause. All that time wasted trying to teach you, just so you could prance right into someone’s arms and become his piss drinking fucktoy. Did you even **try** to fight back, Flower?”

“Her?” Levi snorted. “This submissive slut **wanted** to become my furry cumrag, didn’t you?” When she didn’t answer, he drove himself in deeper, and she screamed as his cock stabbed into her like a spear, ripping through her internal organs. “Didn’t you?!”

“No!” she insisted weakly. “No, I didn’t!”

“She’s lying,” Nobu said bluntly. He had his back to her, washing the pot in the sink. “If she didn’t really want it, she would’ve tried harder. She would’ve made you work for it. But she sucked your cock right away, didn’t she? And swallowed every drop, every time. You never even told her to do that. She was just looking for an excuse to become a cum guzzling whore.”

“Nooooo,” Hanabi whined. “I… I had to…”

“Says who?” asked Kamio. “My daughter is supposed to be smart and resourceful. She’s not supposed to give up the minute things get rough. But all that was a lie too, wasn’t it? You’ve always been this pathetic crybaby, you were just better at hiding it. You tricked us for years, Flower, but now we know what you really are.”

“It’s a relief, really,” said Nobu. “Now we can stop pretending to care about you. We only ever did it because we were scared of you, you know. Scared you would be another Yuki. The whole village will be so happy when they find out you’ve left to become a fucktoy instead.”

“She won’t be one for very long,” Levi said. He pulled out and began to cum on her, shooting gob after gob of semen onto her until she was soaked in it. It was in her hair, in her eyes, clogging her lungs. “We’ll probably fuck her to death within a year. Hell, I might fuck her to death right here.”

Nobu shrugged. “Whatever. She’s your property now.”

“Hanabi?” called someone outside. “Hanabi!” They knocked on the door.

“Oh, that must be Tomo,” Nobu said. “She’ll be so happy when I give her the news.”

“If I were you,” Kamio advised Levi as the man began to fuck the bloody void between Hanabi’s legs again, his cock even harder and longer than before, “I’d kill her sooner rather than later. Just because she’s a furry cumrag doesn’t mean she’ll ever be a **competent** furry cumrag.”

“Hanabi!” called Tomo again, knocking insistently.

“Don’t worry, I’m not expecting any miracles,” Levi replied. “Just some warm fuzzy meat to pump full of piss and cum. Which reminds me…” She felt his hot urine begin to spray his insides while he kept pounding her.

“Hanabi!”

Kamio shook his head ruefully. “If only I’d known better, I could have been training her to be a toilet all this time.”

“Hanabi!”

“Please, I’m sorry I was bad!” the white haired girl begged. “I’m sorry for everything! I’ll go away and never bother any of you again, I promise! Just please help me! Pleaaaaaase!”

“ **Hanabi!** ”

Hanabi opened her eyes slowly. They didn’t want to obey, and her vision spun for a few moments before coalescing into a gray sky.

She’d never felt so weak, or hungry, or thirsty. Her body was utterly drained. But for the first time in a long time, she wasn’t cold. She could still feel the winter air on her naked flesh, but there was a soft warmth on top of her that drove away the chill. “Hanabi!” it said. “Hanabi!”

Hanabi opened her mouth and immediately coughed violently, expelling flakes of dried semen. “T… To… mo…?”

The brown haired girl looked down at her, tears in her eyes. “Oh Goddess, you’re alive!” The words came out of her in a rush. “We were all out looking for you and I saw your body and you weren’t moving and you felt so cold and I thought I thought…” She hugged Hanabi tighter. “You’re alive!”

The white fox felt tears of her own drip down her cheeks, making wet tracks in the grime. “I… I’m… s-sorry…” she managed, and coughed again.

Tomo was saying something, but the words seemed to come from far away, and Hanabi’s eyes were refusing to stay open. The world faded as she drifted away, sinking back into a dark sea of nightmares.

* * *

“Physically speaking, she should be fine after some bed rest,” Dr Emi said. The small dark haired kitsune wore a grim expression despite the good news. “There was no damage that couldn’t be healed, and the most severe wounds have already greatly receded. At worst, there could be a few scars due to the combination of exhaustion and the limbs healing unevenly, but the chances of that are very low.”

“And mentally?” Nobu asked. His heavy tone expressed that he already knew the answer, and just needed to hear it out loud.

Tomo felt awkward being in the clinic with him and Kamio. This was the sort of conversation that was normally between a doctor and the patient’s family, not the family plus a friend that was tagging along. Perhaps she should have left after they’d all arrived with an unconscious Hanabi in tow, but she’d wanted to stay until the girl woke up. Hanabi had seemed so horribly, wretchedly sad during the few seconds she’d been awake, and Tomo longed to see her familiar smile.

“Mentally…” the doctor hesitated. “There were clear signs of sexual assault and violent abuse. Whoever was responsible for it-“

“Will be given a very long time to regret what he’s done,” Kamio said. His words were spoken softly and he wore no expression, but his eyes burned with a fire that Tomo had never seen from him.

“I’m not here to talk about revenge,” Dr Emi said. “I’m here to help that girl heal.” As one of the village’s few doctors, she didn’t always have much work to do, but kitsune were as vulnerable to disease and illness as ordinary humans, and she’d saved more than a few lives over the centuries. Six medical certifications lined one wall, each bearing a different name; she returned to medical school every couple decades masquerading as a fresh student, picking up what new knowledge humanity had acquired. “Whoever was responsible for this seems to have detailed knowledge of kitsune physiology. Or at least, how to make us hurt.” Tomo shuddered. “Given time and a positive environment, I have confidence in Hanabi’s ability to recover from the trauma. But it will not be quick, and it will not be easy. Not on her, nor on you.”

“What can we do?” Nobu asked.

“For now, move slowly. Don’t interrogate her about what happened. Let her set the pace of things and decide if and when she wants to share the details. It is critical, especially in the next few days, that you make sure she feels safe and loved. Don’t expect her to be in a good mood anytime soon, and don’t make her feel like she should force herself to be.” Something stirred in the other room, and there was a quiet groan. “That will be her waking up. Come, we’ll see if she’s feeling up to having visitors.”

Tomo had seen what Hanabi looked like in the forest. She knew all too well what an awful state her friend had been in. But somehow, none of it was worse than seeing the white haired girl flinch in fear when the door to her room was opened. Hanabi had been her best friend for decades, and in all that time Tomo had never seen her anything less than fearless.

Hanabi’s parents tried to hide their reaction, but Tomo could tell they felt equally distraught at her uncharacteristic behavior. Nobu recovered first and offered his daughter a forced smile. “How are you feeling, Flower?”

It took her a second to speak, and when she did the words were quiet and almost unintelligible, even for kitsune ears. “…get out…”

Nobu frowned, then quickly forced the smile onto his face again. “If you want to be alone right now, that’s-“

“ **GET OUT**!” Hanabi screamed, her voice breaking. “Get out get out **GET OUT**!”

Nobu opened his mouth to speak, but his husband laid a hand on his shoulder and silently shook his head. Nobu nodded, and they all withdrew, Tomo included. The brunette tried to get one last look at her friend before she left, but Hanabi had already pulled the sheets over her head, her lithe form scrunched up in a ball and wrapped up in her own tails.

* * *

Hanabi stayed buried under the sheets, listening to the footsteps fade away. Even after she was certain that she was alone, she remained like that, preferring the silent darkness over the real world. She hugged herself, trying to become small enough to disappear completely.

The look of sympathy on their faces had nearly made her throw up. She didn’t deserve any of it. It was her own stupid mistake that had gotten her in trouble in the first place. And if she hadn’t been such a smug, prideful cunt without a lick of common sense, she wouldn’t have even been out there. It was only a matter of time now before her family and friends realized the truth about her. That she was weak and worthless and not worth loving.

She was a fuckup, that’s what she was. She’d always known that she was a fuckup, just like the other white furs before her, but she’d also been dumb enough to think she might be able to hide it. Not anymore. Hanabi thought of the things Levi had done to her, and the things he’d made her beg him to do. She was disgusting now. Defiled. Ruined.

The crying fox hugged herself tighter, digging her fingers into her arms hard enough to draw blood.

* * *

“What do you mean, you can’t find him?!” Nobu snarled. His tails whipped back and forth behind him, creating a small breeze that threatened to demolish the precarious piles of paper spread across the desk.

Despite his harsh tone, the woman on the other side of the desk didn’t waver, though her stern expression held compassion. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you,” Ichika said. “We found what must have been his campsite, but there was no trace of anyone there, and no trail we could follow. I sent people all the way to the outskirts of the forest, and none of them saw anything. As far as we can tell, he’s gone.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Hanabi’s father snapped. “There’s no way a hunter manages to, to find one of us and then just walks away!”

Ichika sighed and rubbed at her eyes, the sight causing a small stab of guilt in Nobu’s heart that penetrated his rage. His sister-in-law obviously hadn’t gotten any sleep since Hanabi had been discovered two days ago. She’d taken the girl’s assault as a personal failing of her duties, and pursued the man responsible as earnestly as anyone. “It’s unusual, but not unheard of. He might have anticipated us retaliating after we discovered what he’d done. He might have gone back to gather more people now that he’s confirmed our presence. There are a hundred different reasons why he could’ve retreated, and he didn’t bother writing us a note.”

The woman stood. The ceiling wasn’t a low one, but she still almost brushed at it at her height. “We haven’t found him **yet**. I’ve sent a few messages around to see if anyone outside the village has any information on him. And if that turns up no leads, we’ll keep doing this the old fashioned way. If he’s smart, he will spend the rest of his life far away from this place. If he’s not…” the statuesque blonde cracked her knuckles. “I’ll make him regret ever crawling out of his mother’s womb.”

 **If** he ever came back. The thought of this Levi just vanishing and never returning made Nobu’s blood boil. That monster had to pay for what he’d done. But a temper tantrum with Ichika wasn’t going to help make that happen, so the dark haired fox forced himself to calm down. Just a little. “If there’s anything I can do to help the search,” he growled. “ **Anything** …”

Ichika’s blue eyes regarded him with sympathy. “You can help Hanabi recover,” she said, sitting back down. “We didn’t get much more than a name from the poor girl, and that his companion had some sort of ability that could counter foxfire.” The notion of someone immune to foxfire had made Nobu’s skin crawl the first time he’d heard it, and was the reason why there were now sentries posted throughout the forest to spot any hunters before they could even get near the village. “The more she tells us, the better our chances of tracking him down.”  
  
Nobu laughed bitterly. “Help her? Hanabi still refuses to even see me or Kamio. And who can blame her?” After all, she’d ventured out of the village because the two of them had given their approval. They’d been arrogant enough to think that they could impart the knowledge that she’d need to keep her safe, and that arrogance had gotten her so terribly hurt. It was no wonder that she hated them now. And the entire thing had been Nobu’s idea in the first place. If he hadn’t convinced his husband to go along with it…

The captain sighed. “Have a drink with me, Nobu.”

“I don’t think-”  
  
“Have a drink with me,” the blond fox repeated firmly, though not unkindly. “That’s not a request.”

Nobu begrudgingly sat down. The captain’s office wasn’t a large room, and it felt even smaller with someone of Ichika’s sizable height in it. For a long time, things hadn’t been nearly so organized. The village’s police force had been a more informal group that communicated mostly in person, foxes running back and forth to relay messages. But eventually the conveniences of the modern world had taken root. They’d built a full police station instead of just guard huts, started keeping better track of records and implementing more formal systems. A few years back they’d even commissioned uniforms, for both human and fox forms.

As one of the older kitsune in the village, Ichika had had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the new conventions. Most humans of this era would have found the computer on her desk to be laughably ancient, but for a woman who still considered ballpoint pens to be a minor technological marvel, it was as advanced as she could tolerate. She’d reluctantly started wearing the uniform too, though not before ripping off the sleeves. All to set a good example for the men and women under her.

“How’s my brother handling everything?” she asked as one of her tails curled around a dark bottle on a nearby shelf without her leaving her seat. She sat it on the desk and cracked it open with her hands while her tails retrieved two cups. “I figured he’d be the one to come see me, not you.”

“He’s… been better,” Nobu said. “You know how he gets sometimes.” Beneath his snarky attitude, Kamio was surprisingly sensitive. It was one of the things Nobu loved about his husband.

“Well, for what’s it worth, I can’t even remember the last time he got himself into a proper funk,” Ichika said. “You’ve been very good for him.”

Nobu shrugged, the compliment ringing empty in his ears. He couldn’t identify the liquid inside the full glass Ichika passed to him, but it smelled like strong stuff. “From the twins?” he guessed.

His sister-in-law nodded. “Miku’s been working on a new formula for celebrating the New Year. Sends me a bottle or two of her failed attempts every once in a while.”

Nobu sipped his glass. It was smooth and sweet, and burned pleasantly on the way down. If this was a failed attempt, the finished product would be something spectacular. “How long has she been working on it?”

The captain chuckled a little. “Since the last New Year’s celebration, of course. And she’ll start over again after the next one.” She downed her entire glass in one go, then carefully set it down. “These things take time, Nobu.”

He knew she wasn’t talking about the alcohol. “It’s already been two days…”

“And eventually it will be two weeks. And then months, years, and decades. Two days isn’t much in the grand scheme of things. Give her time.”

Dr Emi had said much the same thing. “Everyone wants me to be patient,” Nobu said. He looked down at his glass, and resisted the urge to crush it in his hand. “Do you know how **damned** hard it is to just sit here being patient?”  
  
Ichika spread her arms wide. “I’ve got no idea what that’s like,” she said wryly. ”I’m perfectly calm and relaxed while I’m stuck here in this stupid office waiting for reports and trying to get this… this heap of nuts and bolts to do what I want.” She leaned forward. “The ugly truth, Nobu, is that this isn’t our fight. It’s hers. All we can do is support her from the sidelines, and yes, it’s unfair and awful. I could personally hunt down the asshole that did this to her and bring back his head, and it wouldn’t make her pain go away. But Hanabi **will** get over this. And when she does, she deserves to have her fathers there with her, not off feeling sorry for themselves and nearly breaking other people’s antique glasses, thank you very much.”

Nobu sheepishly let her pluck the glass from his hand, though not before finishing its contents. “There has to be something more I can do,” he said stubbornly

“There’s always something more you can do,” Ichika told him. “And when she’s ready, she’ll tell you what that is. So right now, your job is to stay safe and sane until she gets to that point. And if you can help my brother do the same, I’d be grateful. You think you can manage?”

The brown haired man sighed. “Goddess, I hope so.”

* * *

“Tomo!”

The brunette started at the sound of her name, and her sewing needles clattered to the floor along with the clothing she’d been working on. She looked to see her brother with a serious expression on his face. “You’ve been staring into space for the last five minutes,” Tobi said. “Why don’t you just take a break?”

Tomo scrambled to pick up everything that had fallen. “I’m fine,” she said quickly. “I promise. I, I can keep going.”

Tobi eyed her skeptically. He was older than her by only a couple years, but from the way he acted sometimes, you’d think it was more like a couple centuries. “Those needles are sharp,” he admonished, as though she could have somehow overlooked that fact in her decades of working with them, “and you can hurt yourself if you’re not being careful. The village won’t crumble to dust if one of its seamstresses takes the night off to rest and clear her head.”

“I don’t want to rest,” Tomo said, softly but stubbornly. “I want to work.”

Spending a winter’s evening in her family’s warm and cozy house, sitting near the fire and steadily working through the latest pile of clothing to be restitched, had always been one of Tomo’s favorite activities. There was a gentle, relaxing rhythm to it, one that she enjoyed letting herself sink into for hours on end. But her heart wasn’t in it today. The brown haired girl stared down at her latest piece, and tried to tell herself how satisfying it would feel to get it finished. It didn’t work.

“Then why do you look so miserable about it?” Tobi asked.

“Because I should have been out there,” Tomo said grimly as forced herself to get back to work. “Hanabi invited me to go with her the other day. She wanted me there to help celebrate her first trip out of the village in three months… said the people she was going to play with out there would be perfect for my first outing.”

“And she was wrong,” her brother said bluntly. Then he softened his tone just a little. “I hate what happened to her as much as you do, but if you’d been there with her, the only difference is that you would have gotten hurt too. You know that, and so does she.”

“No, we don’t!” Tomo insisted, pausing her sewing again. Part of her wanted to throw the stupid needles into the fire. “Maybe they wouldn’t have tried to capture two foxes at once. Maybe she would’ve been more cautious because she had me to protect. Maybe one of us would’ve gotten away, and been able to go get help from the village. There are plenty of ways things could have turned out better. And even if I had gotten hurt just like she did, then… then… at least she wouldn’t have to be going through this alone right now.”

Tobi sighed. “You know that she wouldn’t want that, and you shouldn’t either. Think about it from her perspective, Tomo: if she had convinced you to go out with her, and both of you were harmed because of it, then on top of what she’s already going through now, she would also be blaming herself for everything that happened to you. Now when was the last time you got some proper sleep?” The brunette didn’t speak, but her silence was answer enough for him. “That’s what I thought. Get some rest, it will help you feel better.”

“You don’t understand,” she told him earnestly, and held up the clothing. “I chose **this** over her. The least I can do now is make that mean something. If I can’t even do this much… then it’s like I abandoned her for absolutely nothing at all.”

Her brother looked like he didn’t agree, but he must have recognized that this was an argument that he wasn’t going to win. “Alright,” he said gently. “Can I at least make you some tea? It’s a cold night, even with that fire next to you.”

  
“That… sounds really good,” Tomo admitted. Tobi smiled at her and went into the kitchen while she resumed her stitching, and soon the pleasant aroma of the tea filled the house. When it was ready, he brought a mug over for each of them, and then sat next to her chair without saying anything, just keeping her company while she worked.

Having an overprotective big brother wasn’t always so bad, she supposed.

* * *

Dr Emi didn’t ask why Kamio was visiting the clinic, but she did give the covered bowl in his hands a questioning look as she stepped aside and let him in. “We thought she might like some home cooking,” the blond man explained. “If that’s alright.”

“Yes, of course,” the doctor assured him. “She lost a lot of calories during her ordeal, and to tell the truth, I’ve been a little concerned about her lack of appetite. She may appreciate some comfort food right now.” She returned to her office, leaving him to walk the now familiar route to the closed door of his daughter’s room.

“Hanabi?” he asked quietly. “Are you awake? I… I brought you some udon.” He forced a lighthearted tone to his voice. “Don’t worry, Nobu made it, not me. You’ve already been through enough without adding food poisoning.”

There was no response.

“I’ll leave it by the door,” he said after a minute. “You can come get it whenever you want, no hurry. You know how your father is: it’ll be just as good cold as hot.” He carefully set the bowl down. “If it’s alright with you, I’m going to stay for a little longer, Flower. You don’t have to come out or say anything.”

He slid down the wall to sit next to the door and stayed like that quietly for a time before speaking again, his voice soft. “I wanted to do something for you too, but you know me. I’m pretty useless when it comes to all the things that matter. Knowing how to swing a weapon doesn’t have a lot of uses outside of a battlefield, and neither does knowing some tricks with foxfire. I don’t know how he does it, but somehow Nobu manages to be both half my age and ten times better at being an adult.”

Kamio smiled slightly. “I have no idea what I’d do without without that man. And if even he doesn’t know how to make this situation better, what hope do I have, right? But I could at least bring you the food he made, and keep you company for a little while.”

He took a deep breath. “I know it hurts. You’ve played it all out a hundred times in your head, thinking of all the things you should have done instead. Coming up with reason after reason to prove that this is all your fault and no one else’s. It feels like… like your entire life now orbits this horrible thing, and you can’t imagine a time when it won’t be the most important thing on your mind. I went through the same thing after the War. I learned the name of every single person that died, and what I could have done to save them, if I’d just been a little stronger, or faster, or smarter. By the time I started seeing your father, I didn’t **worry** that their deaths were all my fault. It was just a fact by then.”

Kamio idly traced Hanabi’s name on the floor with one finger. 花美. Flower Beauty. “Did I ever tell you about the time we went to the Bon Festival in Mie? It was a hundred and sixty seven years ago, and he had to all but physically drag me out of Hanei by the tails to get me to go. I hadn’t left the village in five centuries, and I fully intended to die without ever stepping foot from it again. But you know how persuasive your father can be when he wants to.

“And I made him regret it too. I was sullen and snippy the whole time, like if I could make this trip miserable for both of us, I’d never have to take another again. I kept it up all the way to the last night of the festival, when he took me to see the fireworks. And they were…” He closed his eyes and remembered. “They were amazing. We have fireworks here too, but they were nothing like those. Gorgeous, brilliant flowers in the sky. Even I couldn’t stay cynical at the sight of something so incredible. And while I stared at the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, your father leaned in and whispered in my ear. And do you know what he said? ‘You’re not as special as you think you are’.”

He grinned at the memory. “Can you believe the nerve of it? But I knew what he meant. As much as I wanted to blame myself for everything that had happened, as much as I wanted to believe that I was **supposed** to have done better, the truth was… I wasn’t that special. I’d tried my best, and bad things had still happened. Sometimes that’s just the way life goes. I could still mourn what had happened, but I didn’t have to **regret** it.

“And if he’d told me that at any other time, in any other place, I don’t think I would’ve been able to let myself hear him. But as I looked at those beautiful flowers that were so much bigger and grander than I was, I couldn’t deny what he was saying. And I couldn’t deny that even after all that I’d lost, the world still held so much beauty and wonder. And after that, whenever I was feeling miserable or depressed, I remembered his words and those flowers. Until something even more beautiful and wonderful entered our lives, of course.”

花美. The kanji meant “Flower Beauty”, but the pronunciation – hanabi – meant “fireworks”. He and Nobu had had no idea how appropriate the name would be for their daughter: graceful, brilliant, as vivacious as a flower in fresh bloom and as radiant as a night sky streaked with fire.

Kamio rose to his feet. “I should be getting back. I hope you enjoy the udon, Flower. I’m sure Nobu is going to cook you something delicious again tomorrow, and I’ll be back to deliver it again. Maybe I won’t even steal a few bites of it for myself. Good night.”

He was halfway down the hall when her voice reached him, small and fragile. “…thank you…” When he turned around to look, the bowl was gone, and the door was already swinging shut.

* * *

Shura yawned and chewed her gum while she checked the foxfire wards for the seventy sixth time that night. They were just as stable as they’d been the seventy fifth.

Guard work was easily the most boring job in the village. When the blue haired fox woman had first agreed to work for Captain Ichika two hundred and thirty years ago, she’d thought she was going to be a brave defender of her people. The last bulwark in times of crisis. She was ready to give her all – even her life, if need be – to protect their home. The first night she’d gone on duty, her heart had been pounding so loudly that she was certain the entire village could hear it.

And now… she checked the foxfire wards for the seventy seventh time. No change.

Ichika had recruited her for her talents with foxfire, but she could do a job like this in her sleep. The wards had been created centuries ago, and constantly maintained and improved over the years by the best minds in the village. Any intruder that approached would find their sense of direction muddled so badly that they were more likely to catch their own shadow than to reach one of the guard posts. Shura had tested them out on herself before, just to see what they were like, and was completely stymied by them. Even closing her eyes and just running straight forward somehow put her further away than she’d been before. She’d tried for hours before giving up. The wards might not be a solid wall, but they were as impenetrable as one.

Seventy eighth check. No change.

Shura’s only real task here was to supply the wards with her own foxfire to keep them active. She didn’t need to craft any of the illusions herself, just drain her power into them like pouring liquid into a mould. Some of the other guards didn’t even bother keeping watch during their shifts. They just showed up, dumped their foxfire, and left. For a long time she’d thought of them as slackers and chided them for putting the village at risk with their carelessness, but their method became more appealing with every uneventful night. Tonight was even more pointless than usual with all those new sentries out there. If anything **did** happen, they’d be the ones to report it, not her.

Seventy ninth check. No change.

The blue haired fox blew a bubblegum bubble and let her spear rest against of the wooden wall of the small guardhouse. It seemed to weigh more with every passing minute. Once upon a time she would have been horrified at herself for so casually leaving her weapon, but she had never once, not in all two hundred and thirty long years, found cause to actually use it. It had been more than a century since she’d even practiced. Captain Ichika was the only one who still kept at it, putting in two hours at the same time each and every day like clockwork.

After a second, Shura popped the bubble and let her head rest against the wall too while she idly chewed, her eyes half closed as she looked out the window at the empty forest beyond. Right now, just staying awake for her entire shift felt like heroism enough for her. She wasn’t even lucky enough to be on the day shift. At least they got to chat with people coming in and out of the village, rare as that was. Her shift was late enough that even most kitsune were asleep, and no one was going to do any traveling in the dead of night like this. So she just waited and checked the wards and waited and checked the wards, every night for the last two centuries.

Eightieth check. No… wait.

There was a raggedness to the edge of the wards, like they were being chewed away. Shura pushed more foxfire into them and then reeled back, surprised. They were **cold**. It wasn’t a warm night, and the winter chill always made foxfire more difficult to work with, but she’d never experienced anything like this. It felt like waves of ice water striking the wards, extinguishing them more and more with each pass. She sent more foxfire into them, but it was as effective as trying to stoke a fire during a storm.

All thoughts of napping were gone as Shura nervously grabbed for her spear. Her trembling fingers knocked it to the floor instead, and she quickly crouched to retrieve it. Then screamed as a hand seized her by the hair and tried to yank her right out the window. Her back to the wall now, the blue haired woman struggled with her unseen attacker, limbs and tails flailing without success. She tried to scream again, to shout out a warning for anyone who might be nearby, but his other hand was clamped over her mouth to keep her quiet.

Her hands were scrabbling at the walls now, trying to arrest her movement and pull herself back into the wooden hut. She was half out the window, her feet off the ground and kicking helplessly. She saw men all around her, and uniforms, but it was too much to take in, her mind too weighed down by panic to think about anything but her immediate danger. More hands were on her, dozens of them, tearing at her clothes until she was buck naked in the freezing cold. “One of you pin this squirming bitch down,” an unfamiliar male voice snarled.

Sharp agony suddenly blossomed in her stomach, and Shura’s eyes darted down to see what had happened. The sight made her scream into her attacker’s sweaty hand again. Someone had driven a long combat knife straight into her midriff, forcing it in so deep that there was a matching agony in her back where the tip had broken through. They’d… they’d nailed her to the windowsill. The blade was buried at least several inches into the soft wood, and every movement sent waves of pain far worse than anything she’d ever felt radiating throughout her entire body.

The cruel injury was bloody and horrific, but not fatal for a kitsune, not yet. All of Shura’s struggles ceased as she fought against the instinct to keep writhing and trying to escape the pain. If she was going to have any hope of survival, she needed to keep from widening the wound. It was all but impossible, but she stayed still while they hammered in additional knifes on either side of her, cutting tiny slices out of her sides as she hung limply, her feet dangling inside the guard station while her head dangled outside it. Her vision was blocked by something warm and soft, and a shiver of disgust ran through her, pain trailing in its wake, as she realized that her face was pressed against someone’s crotch.

“Congratulations, slut,” said the man’s voice above her. “You get to be the first fucktoy in this entire nest to guzzle my seed tonight. Let’s start by going over the most important rule of your new life.” Shura fought down her nausea as he began to rub his hot cock over her face, the shaft already slimy with his precum. “If me or any of my men ever feel a single tooth, you get demoted to paintoy. And that’s where we stop being all nice and friendly with your worthless furry hide. Understand?” His hand released her mouth, but the bluehaired woman didn’t respond immediately, still trying to catch her breath and make sense of her situation. That turned out to be a mistake; he slapped one of the knife hilts with the palm of his hand, making her screech into his groin.”Do you understand, animal?!”

“Yfff!” she said quickly, her voice muffled by the cock throbbing against her lips. Then she screeched again as he slapped the knife hilt again.

“I don’t speak fleshlight,” he said harshly. “If you understand, give those fat little fox tits of yours a good slap.” Shura could feel heat on her cheeks as they glowed red with shame, but she was in no position to argue or weigh her options. She raised her right hand and lightly smacked the side of one breast. The man snorted, and she felt warm wetness strike her chest as he spat on her. “Worthless slut. I said slap, not pet. Harder!” She tried to obey, smacking her breasts hard enough to sting, but it still wasn’t enough for him, and she squealed as he twisted one of her nipples sharply, pulling her breast straight up. “I want to see some fucking handprints, bitch. If you can’t even do that much, I’ll chop these funbags off and feed them to you!”

Shura struck her breast as hard as she could, the impact jostling the knife and making her moan pitifully. “Finally, lazy slut. Keep it up. Tenderize those titties for everyone so we can see how eager you are to please us with this warm fuckhole of a mouth you’ve got.” Frustrated tears leaked from the fox’s eyes as she humiliated herself for his amusement.

Nothing he could say or do to her stung more than her own self-hatred though. She had **failed**. Protecting the village had been her one task, the duty that she’d spent two centuries preparing for, and when the moment had arrived she’d crumpled like wet tissue. While she obediently abused her own flesh, she could hear more intruders arriving, walking right by the guard station she had been manning. Even with her sight still obscured, it was easy to see that the greatest danger Hanei had faced since the War had descended tonight, and she’d been utterly useless. She deserved what was happening now.

Her self-recrimination was interrupted by a hand gripping her jaw to wrench it open. “What is this shit?” he grumbled, and pushed his fingers into her mouth to pull out the wad of chewed bubblegum. “The mark of an airheaded slut,” he said, amused. “You won’t be doing much chewing for the rest of your life, cunt, but I know a better use for this.” To her disgust and horror, he pulled the gum apart into two pieces and crammed them both into her nostrils, shoving the sticky goo as deep as his fingers could manage and completely plugging up her nose in the process.

It was an intrusive and intensely humiliating experience, but nothing compared to what happened next. Shura gagged as the man’s fat prick slid between her lips and immediately jabbed at the back of her throat. She tried to turn her head away, but his other hand grabbed her hair to control her movements. “My hands are too busy to play with your tits right now,” he said as he began using that control to swing her head back and forth, making her fuck him with her face. “So you’re going to do it for me. Mash that soft flesh beneath your fingers! Show everyone how good their cocks are going to feel when you wrap those udders around them!”

Shura didn’t want to obey, but between the gum in her nose and his dick filling her mouth, she couldn’t draw any breath at all right now. His mercy was the only thing that might stop her from dying like this, and she had no reason to think he’d offer any if she proved willful. She was just a worthless, unimportant village guard, after all. His kind wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. So she began to knead her breasts for him, trying to ignore the whistles and laughter all around her that her submission provoked.

“That’s the spirit, fox slut,” he encouraged. He drew his hips back far enough to let her breathe, but only for a second, letting her draw a couple ragged breaths before her throat was being stuffed again. “God, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a race as easy to break in as you furry fleshlights. This is what you were made for.” Even if she had the courage and breath to respond, Shura could do nothing but gag and gurgle, her own spit dribbling down her face, as he sank into her throat.

The blue haired woman was still trying to adjust to the unwelcome intrusion when she felt someone in the guard hut pull her legs apart. Her initial reaction was to try and kick at this new abuser, one that she instantly regretted as the knife pinning her to the windowsill tore at her flesh. “Look at this dumb bitch,” said the new man as she promptly stopped struggling and tried to go limp again to spare herself. “Thinks she’s too good for a human prick up her cunt. Just for that…” Shura squealed as rough fingers dug into the soles of her feet. She’d never considered herself particularly ticklish, but she was as sensitive down there as anyone. She whimpered as she involuntarily squirmed and shook, making the knife inside her feel like it was being twisted.

“You want to relax and enjoy a good pounding?” asked the man as he continued tickling her feet. She tried to nod and voice her agreement, but she couldn’t move her head with her throat so thoroughly impaled on cock. She couldn’t manage more than a submissive whimper while its owner began using his fingers to prod his scrotum into her mouth.

“Lick my balls while you swallow my cock,” said the throat rapist after he’d finished stuffing the last few inches in. “Prove that you’re too good a fucktoy to leave nailed here all day.” She obeyed, slurping and sucking on the wrinkled lumps filling her cheeks as her lungs burned for air. All the while still jerking and twisting as the soles of her feet were mercilessly played with.

“When you’re ready to give your womb a hot cum bath, just point the way,” said the one at her front. “Show me the hole I should shove my cock into.”

Shura wanted to scream in frustration. They were already humiliating her, torturing her, raping her. Why couldn’t that be enough? Why did they have to keep pushing her down even farther? But she couldn’t voice the complaint, and wouldn’t have dared to anyway. Instead she cautiously brought one hand down between her legs, careful not to brush the impaling knife, just as careful not to stop mauling her own tits with her other hand, and used two fingers in a V to spread her pussy lips apart.

The tickling of her feet abruptly stopped, but before she had any time for relief, the man’s thick cock was forcing its way into her dry tunnel. Even the pain of the knife inside her as she was pushed forward couldn’t compare to the agony of his cockhead tearing her open and his shaft scraping her pussy walls. The brutal push soon left his head flattened against her cervix, as did the next, and the next. Each thrust came faster and harder as he loosened her up, every pass getting him closer to fucking her the way he really wanted. “Keep showing me the way to your womb, slut,” he ordered as he treated her cervix as a punching bag for his prick. “I see those fingers move, and I go back to giving your feet some TLC. And wrap your legs around me! I want to feel how welcome me and my spunk are in this tight cunt.”

The blue haired woman obeyed. She wrapped her legs around the waist of one stranger to help him rape her pussy, while she tongued another stranger’s balls to help him rape her mouth. And all the while she played with her breasts and spread herself open like a woman in heat. She wanted to die. If the knife pinning her in place could offer her a swift, clean death instead of a slow and gruesome one, if she could be certain that disobedience would really lead to being choked to death and not just even harsher abuse, she would’ve jumped for the chance. But there was no such easy escape to be had. So she licked and fingered and groped and humped like the fucktoy they wanted, while they laughed at her, mocked her, and enjoyed her body.

  * 


The two men came within seconds of each other. First was the man in her mouth, who began shooting his load down her throat. He’d been offering her short opportunities to breathe at regular intervals, but this time he didn’t let up. He didn’t want her to breathe until he’d finished feeding her his cum. Shura tried to hold on, but she’d already been dizzy and seeing spots when his cock first started pulsing. As she felt his warm goo spatter her esophagus, she shuddered and lost control of her bladder. She only dimly felt the hot urine running out of her, but she heard the raucous laughter it provoked. “Needy slut loves the taste of jizz so much she went and pissed herself!” an unseen spectator declared, to more laughing and sounds of agreement.

She was still woozy and only half conscious when she felt the gush of more warm liquid inside of her. “Yeah, gobble all that cum up with your womb,” said the man raping her happily. “I won’t be the last one to put your babymaker to work, but goddamn it, I’ll be the first! You feel all those olympic swimmers inside you, slut? You treat ‘em nice; they’re way higher quality than what any of the mangy mutts around here have ever given you.”

It wasn’t the foul taste of unwashed cock and balls on her tongue that made Shura throw up, nor was it the sticky cum clogging her throat, though both contributed. It was the implication that they intended to breed her like an animal. The idea that all of Hanei, the largest kitsune community in the world, a village whose history stretched back more than a millenium, was about to be reduced to a breeding farm. The knowledge that it was going to be partly her fault. Men laughed as all the semen she’d just been forcefed bubbled up and out of her mouth, along with what was left of her last meal.

She caught a glimpse of the men around her as the one who’d used her throat finally stepped back. There were only a handful of them around her now, but she’d heard others streaming into the village while she was used. Dozens of them, maybe hundreds, all armed and dangerous, and her people defenseless and unaware. Then her vision was cut off by another man’s crotch, and a new cock began to eagerly push into her mouth. “Guess she didn’t like the taste of your cum, sir,” said her latest rapist. “Let’s find out if mine is any tastier.” Another man was already between her legs, the cum dribbling from her pussy giving him all the lubrication he needed to fuck her with sharp, rough strokes. Shura yelped as one of her sensitive ears were twisted sharply. “Nobody told you to stop using your hands, slut. It’s gonna take a lot more than one load of jizz to fill that hungry womb.”  
  
“And you’ve got a lot of selfless volunteers waiting to help you out,” said the man getting ready to contribute more. “Least you can do is give them a show to pass the time.”

I’m sorry, Shura said silently to everyone as she spread her pussy lips back open and resumed playing with her sore chest. If she could go back in time, things would be different. She would train. She would be vigilant. She wouldn’t treat her duty to protect her people as a boring chore to get through. But she couldn’t change the past, and there would be no second chances. Hanei was doomed.

I’m sorry.


	6. The Fall of Hanei

Thanks for reading! Me and my cowriter Darinost are slowly combining blogs and comment sections, so feel free to join us all on [discord ](https://discord.gg/TtJ2P77)to discuss stories!

* * *

Sakura yawned as she woke, her limber body languidly stretching beneath the covers. She’d turned the heat off last night just before turning in, and by now her bedroom was almost cold enough to see her breath. It was perfect. If there was anything in life better than a warm bed on a cold morning, she hadn’t found it yet.

She opened one bleary eye to check the time, and all but purred when she saw that it wasn’t even dawn yet. She didn’t know what had woken her up so early, and she couldn’t care less. The important thing was that she still had hours and hours yet to snuggle into her warm cocoon before she had to get up. She shifted her tails slightly, nuzzled the one she was using as a pillow, and began to drift back to sleep.

And then the covers were ripped away from her, and something rolled her over onto her stomach and forced her legs apart. More than half asleep already, Sakura struggled weakly as her face was shoved against her tail pillow. A heavy weight slammed on top of her… and **in** her. The pink haired fox screamed into her pillow, all vestiges of sleep gone in an instant, as she was roughly penetrated, the invading object thrusting deep inside.

“I thought the others were exaggerating when they told me how good furry twat was,” exclaimed an unfamiliar male voice. “But fuck me if I’ve ever met a fuckhole this hot or soft!” The girl flinched as the unseen man gave her a sharp smack on the ass. “Let’s take you for a ride, foxy, see what you can do.” She didn’t want to believe what was happening. She was in her own home, her own bed, on what seconds ago had been a completely unremarkable day. She couldn’t be getting pinned down and raped by a complete stranger!

But reality refused to be ignored. His hands were buried in her hair, shoving her face deeper into the mattress as he eagerly pounded her. His fat mushroom head felt impossibly large and rough as it scrubbed her dry folds. Sakura wasn’t a virgin, and she’d enjoyed lovers of more than one sex before, but she was used to foreplay and gentle lovemaking. What this home invader was doing to her body felt nothing like any sexual experience she’d ever had. It felt more like getting beaten, just with his cock instead of his fists. She flailed wildly at him with her tails, unable to see what she was doing, and managed to twist her head to the side. “Help!” she screamed. “Someone he-“

The pink haired girl gagged as something tightened around her throat. Her fingers clawed at her neck and he casually slapped them away. Her tail! He was choking her with her own tail! Her body bent backwards trying to find some slack that would let her breathe, but her soft fur remained an inescapable noose.

“I don’t like unruly bitches that go around barking and making noise,” he hissed into her ear. His breath was hot and stank of tobacco. “I like happy sluts with wiggly tushies and eager tongues. Are you a bitch or a slut?”

Sakura wanted to insist that she was neither, but her lungs were already burning. Whoever had broken into her home was clearly insane and violent: she couldn’t predict how far he would go if she pushed him, and her dignity wasn’t worth her life. “S… slut…” she choked out reluctantly.

To her relief, the pressure against her throat eased just enough to let her breathe again. Her assailant pushed her face back down into the pillow, and began to fuck her at an even harder pace. “Yeah you are” he breathed. “My little pink haired slut with the tightest twat I’ve ever seen. Fuck…” His movements grew stronger and more erratic. “Little… fox eared… slut!” He grabbed her ears and yanked back on them as his hips smashed into hers a final time. Both of them screamed, one in agony and one in joy, as his load painted the inner depths of her pussy.

Sakura panted, her mind a cacophony of terror and pain that made it difficult to think straight. Was it over? Would he finally leave her a- she squealed as he smacked the top of her ass hard. “I didn’t tell you to make me cum yet,” he snarled, punctuating every few words with another heavy slap that made her whole body jerk. “Did I tell you to make me cum?! Did I?!”

“N-no,” she mumbled once she realized that he expected an answer. He was still inside her. And to her dismay, he felt as hard as ever despite finishing. She’d always heard that humans – and that’s what she had to assume he was, because no fox of Hanei would do something like this – had far less stamina than kitsune when it came to sex.

Sakura screamed in agony once more as he pinched one of her pussy lips between his fingers and pulled. “Then why,” he growled, tugging her vulnerable flesh like he meant to rip it off, “did that tight, greedy twat of yours suck my cum out without permission?!”

“I-I-I’m sorry,” she wailed. “Sorry that I, I, that I made you cum without permission!” Her voice went up an octave as she felt something begin to tear. “Please l-let me try again! Please!”

He released her pussy lips, and she collapsed onto the bed. “Should’ve known an animal would need to be trained first,” he said, sounding more amused than angry. “Now get started.”

He only had to slap her ass one more time before Sakura got the message and rose to her knees to begin fucking herself on him. He held tightly onto the tail around her throat, using it as a leash to prevent her from escaping. This is insane, she thought, as she forced the cock belonging to a man whose face she hadn’t even seen yet in and out of her dry channel. Her entire pussy burned like it was on fire after being scraped raw, and it was becoming harder for him to move inside of her, not easier, as her walls swelled up. She had to get away from this lunatic and find help. If she could just get outside, she’d be free.

Where were her parents? Their house wasn’t a large one, and Goddess knew how many times she’d heard the two of them going at it. There was no way they couldn’t hear what was happening in her room right now. Had he done something to them? She pictured her parents dead in their bed, and her pleasuring their killer, and was nearly sick. More than once, Sakura considered trying to overpower him. Save for the tail leash, he hadn’t bound her in any way. But he **would** if she tried to struggle, and then she’d have no hope at all of escape. And even if she wasn’t tired and naked and sore, she wasn’t any kind of fighter. Her best chance for now was to wait for an opportunity to run.

Before long, a new problem began to demand her attention: she was freezing. Without her warm sheets, the room was unpleasantly cold, and soon her teeth were chattering while she continued helping a stranger enjoy her body. The cold air on her skin only made the heat of his prick inside her stand out more starkly. “M-m-may I h-have the b-blanket, please?” she asked. “Sir?”

“Fuck you, fox,” he said amiably. “You want to warm up, I’ll send some hot cum down your throat later. I’m not giving a perfectly good blanket to an animal.” He laughed as though he’d said something funny. Unable to argue, Sakura only whimpered softly and kept fucking him.

For long minutes she pleasured him with her sore pussy. Sometimes he ordered her to go faster or slower. Whenever his cock began to pulse and swell he’d order her to stop, letting his orgasm stall and fade. “If all I wanted was to shoot my load,” he told her at one point, “I’ve got two good hands. When it comes to sex, spurting is just the icing on the cake, and I like to savor my sluts.”

The thought of having even more of his cum inside of her made her sick, but before long Sakura was silently begging him to finish. She was already as wet as she was going to get, and fucking him still felt like shredding her own pussy walls with her fingernails. Her healing factor was responsible for much of the torture; instead of her nerve endings getting ripped up, making her insides numb and sparing her pain, they were constantly getting healed, which let them keep broadcasting frantic signals, just as her flesh kept healing enough to be savaged over and over.

Meanwhile, the rest of her was so cold that it was physically painful. It was far colder in the room than when she’d woken up, the temperature plummeting by at least ten degrees Celsius. All she wanted was to curl up in a blanket somewhere warm, but she couldn’t, not until this monster let her go.

Frigid dawn light filled her bedroom by the time she voiced her thoughts, whispering “please… please cum…” It had to have been hours by now, hours of pain and cold and his fat disgusting cock sliding in and out of her.

He laughed. “Your greedy twat is getting hungry, huh? Wants to suck out more of my cream?” Shame dyed Sakura’s face red as she nodded, accepting the humiliation if it meant ending this sooner. “Then say so. Beg me for it, slut.”

“Please… please feed m-my greedy t-twat,” she stammered. “It wants your, your cream, please. Sir.”

She squealed as he smacked her ass again without warning. “You can do better than that,” he scolded. “This isn’t a library, you don’t have to whisper. Put some energy into it! Show me what a needy slut you are. Convince me that there’s nothing you want more right now than my sticky seed coating your womb.”

The mental image nearly made her puke, but she was at her wit’s end. Anything was better than this frozen hell. “Please, I can’t live without your cum,” she pleaded.

Another smack. “Louder!”

“I need your cum!” she shouted. “Please give me your cum!”

“Is that the best you can do?” he mocked. “Maybe I should just snap your neck and go find me a fox slut who can obey simple orders. Louder!”

“ **Please**!” Sakura howled at the top of her lungs, certain that he wasn’t bluffing. “ **Please feed my hungry twat, sir! It needs your seed! I’ll die without it!** ”

He chuckled. “Hopeless little slut. Alright, if you’re that desperate for it, eat up!”

She gritted her teeth and fucked herself hard on him, ignoring all of her body’s protests. Just a little more, she told herself as she slammed her own hips against his groin. Just a little more and this can be over. She felt him pulse and swell like he’d done half a hundred times already, but this time he didn’t tell her to stop. She threw the last of her energy into it, panting and thrusting until finally, finally, she felt warm slime gush out of him. Even its heat couldn’t stop her stomach from doing flip flops at the sensation. She’d successfully raped herself for him.

“That wasn’t half bad,” he said, sounding satisfied. “Keep it up and you might actually be a decent pet someday. It’d be a waste for someone with a cunt this nice to not be using it all day long and proper.’ He patted her sweaty hair like he was petting an animal. “You were whining about the cold earlier, right? Here.”

More liquid began to fill her insides. It was less viscous than before, and a much more powerful stream that made her squirm in pain as it struck her abused walls. He… he couldn’t have… “There, some hot piss to warm up my new fleshlight,” he said, confirming the nightmare. “I think that was a long enough break, don’t you? Giddy up foxy, let’s see how well you can do **this** time.”

Sakura’s brain refused to comprehend his words at first. This was over. It had to be. He’d already finished twice, he couldn’t possibly go for a third round. He couldn’t! This was supposed to be the end!

But his cock was still long and hard inside her, and when he spoke again there was an edge of impatience in his voice. “You were doing so good just now, slut. Don’t make me punish you for being a lazy bitch.” Weeping softly, Sakura began to fuck herself on him again.

The day grew no colder as time passed, but no warmer either. She pleaded with him again and again to cum, all of her dignity frozen and dead inside her, but he always refused. “What’s your hurry, slut?” he asked her. “We’ve got all day long to play with your furry twat.”

She had to get away. She was terrified and exhausted and in more pain than she’d ever thought possible, but she couldn’t go on like this. Waiting him out wasn’t working. Praying that somebody would notice her absence and investigate her home wasn’t working. She was increasingly certain that escape was the only way out.

“P-please sir, m-may I, I want t-to…” Sakura scrambled to find the right words to entice him, her teeth still chattering from the cold. “I w-want to taste you, sir. W-with my mouth.” If he wanted to take her orally, he’d have to move, and let go of the wretched tail leash for a moment. She’d only get one chance, but if she was ready for it, she could be out the door and halfway down the street in seconds.

“Can’t wait to guzzle some sperm?” he asked, amused.

“Yes! I, I mean no! I mean… please let me s-suck you, sir. I p-promise to do my best. I, I, I want to savor your th-thick cream.”

To her relief, his cock slid out of her. “How about a trade?” She froze as his cum-slick head kissed her anal ring. “You show me what a good butt slut you can be, and I’ll let you gargle all the dick snot you want after.”

Oh Goddess. She’d never done anal before, never even considered doing anal before. The idea of giving this man her anal virginity was horrifying and disgusting and unfair… and the only way she saw out of this. “Yes, please,” she whispered. “P-please use my ass, sir.”

This time he didn’t smack her ass. He reached down and pinched her clitoral hood instead, crushing the sensitive fold between two fingernails. “I said butt slut, not sad whiny bitch,” he complained as she screeched in agony. “Wiggly tushies, remember? Try again.”

Sakura felt like the lowest, most pathetic creature in the world as she wagged her ass back and forth to amuse the man who was going to rape it. “Please f-fuck your foxy slut’s ass, s-sir!” she shouted. “It will b-be even tighter than her f-f-furry twat, and j-just as hungry!”

His cockhead found her anus again, and began to apply an uncomfortable pressure. “Tell me how much you love this,” he ordered. “Don’t stop until I’m all the way in. And pull those plump cheeks apart. Show me this hole you want stuffed.”

“I l-love it!” she exclaimed loudly as she reached back and spread her ass for him. “I can’t w-wait to feel your f-fat cock in my butt! It’s going t-to feel so good!” The uncomfortable pressure transitioned to pain. Sakura knew that tensing up would only make things worse,.but she couldn’t help it. Her anus was squeezed tightly shut in an instinctive attempt to block the would be intruder.

His cock felt like an iron club as it pressed down on her defenses, and its mushroom head flattened out against her cheeks. It was so much wider than her that she actually felt relief. It was impossible to force something so large into a hole that small. He’d have to realize that in a minute, and then he would give up.

Part of her wasn’t so sure.

“Fuck m-my ass!” she shouted. “I w-want to be your butt s-slut!” The pressure on her asshole vanished, but before she could feel any relief, it slammed back into her hard enough to nearly knock her over. He’d rammed into her with his cock as though he intended to impale her on it. He did it again and again, her anus growing more sore each time as it was beaten by his dick.

And then she felt something give, and he was inside her, her clenched anus stretched around his thick head. Her voice cut off, her entire body went rigid, and for a moment Sakura didn’t notice the cold or her aching insides. Then she began to scream.

Her senses told her that she was being ripped down the middle, speared right through the guts. New pain blossomed alongside it as he pinched her clitoral hood again. “I didn’t tell you to stop talking,” he growled. “You’ve still got eight more inches to go.”

“I… I… oh goddess… I l-love it… it’s such a p-perfect fit…” Sakura could do nothing but cheer him on as he doggedly worked his cock into her a millimeter at a time. “Thank you f-for this, sir…” She couldn’t even tell how much of him was left. Her bleeding asshole insisted that he must have several feet inside her. Every time he made more progress forward, she prayed that he was all the way in, but he just kept going.

Finally, his groin pressed against her, his balls slapping her pussy. He was done. “That’s my half of the work finished,” he said cheerfully. “Get to it, butt slut.”

Sakura greeted the news that she would be expected to do the rest with dull despair. She gritted her teeth and began to pull herself off of him. It was as slow a process as insertion, and just as painful. He’d forced her rectum to mold itself to him on the way in, and now it clung to him on the way out. His thick head felt like a leaden weight buried inside her, and it was taking all of her strength to slowly, slowly drag it out of her bowels.

Her anal rape felt like it had already lasted even longer than the previous assault by the time her anal ring widened to hug the emerging cockhead. Every instinct screamed at her to keep going just a little further, and expel the dirty, massive, disgusting tool from her body. But he wanted her to be a… a good butt slut, and if she didn’t play along, even her slim chance of escape would likely vanish. So she pushed herself against him instead, and wanted to weep as she felt the source of her misery begin to sink back into her aching tunnel.

“I knew you were built to be a good butt slut,” he crowed. “Look at you, working so hard to give me a long, slow assfuck. Take your time, slut. Make it last.”

“Y-yes, sir,” Sakura gasped out. With each thrust, her back passage loosened a little more and became easier to move in, but no less awful. Her world shrank to coldness, pain, and humiliation as she worked his cock in and out of her bowels again, and again, and again, and again… it felt like weeks had passed by the time he grabbed her hips and began fucking her himself as his cock pulsed inside her. She felt him begin to ejaculate, spraying his seed up and down the length of her rectum. He was fully seated in her when he stopped, letting the last spurts go even further than his cock had managed.

“M-may I t-taste you n-now, s-sir?”

“Hungry, hungry fox slut,” he said with a chuckle. “Yeah, never let it be said that I don’t keep my pets well fed.” And then finally, after hours and hours of abuse and shame, the moment she’d been waiting for arrived. He shifted around on the bed, and she felt him let go of the tail leash.

Sakura bolted away with everything she had. She expected him to chase after her, but he seemed frozen by surprise. She was naked and had cum running down her legs, but she didn’t feel even a moment’s hesitation or shame about throwing open the front door and racing out into the open air towards freedom. She’d made it! She’d made it! She’d…

The pink haired girl looked around and began to shiver violently from a chill that had nothing to do with the cruel winter air.

This wasn’t the village. This was hell.

All around her, in every direction, were kitsune being raped. Every face was familiar to her, belonging to someone she’d known for decades. Kitsune begged and screamed and sobbed as they were violated singly and in groups by men clad in military gear. In the distance, she could hear more moans and wails. The invaders were handling their captives with casual brutality. Sakura saw foxes choking as their faces were ground into the dirt, foxes who must have tried to run and had limbs broken or tails ripped off in retaliation, foxes bleeding as two or even three men stuffed themselves into the same hole.

She let out an involuntary sob at the sight of her parents, not twenty feet away. Her father was alive, but he was bloody and bound, all of his limbs twisted in unnatural angles, as he watched his wife being raped right next to him. Cum was spurting out of the woman’s nose as Sakura’s mother was violently facefucked by a grinning soldier. The one behind her held what her daughter recognized as the family’s own cordless iron. He had it pressed against the small of her back, made her scream and buck against him as her flesh sizzled.

The pink haired girl’s legs trembled as she took in the scene of devastation. The unknown soldiers didn’t seem to have noticed her yet, intent on enjoying their prizes, but it was only a matter of time before someone spotted an unattended kitsune. She backed away slowly towards her home until her shoulder blades bumped into the door behind her, and then spun around to throw it open and dart inside.

Except that her door wouldn’t open, the lock rattling as she twisted the knob frantically. “There some kind of problem out there?” called her rapist cheerfully from behind the door, and a shiver went down Sakura’s spine. He knew exactly what she was seeing out there.

“P-please let me in,” she begged. She knew that meant returning to the same nightmare she’d just escaped from, but the thought of entertaining a single sadist was preferable to being gangraped by an army. “I… I won’t try to run again, please!”

The door swung open, and she moved to get inside, but he stood in the door frame blocking her from entering. It was her first good look at the man who’d spent the morning raping her, and it didn’t make her feel any better about the experience. He wasn’t particularly ugly, or even out of shape – she wouldn’t have been attracted to him if he was a kitsune, but she wouldn’t have been repulsed either – but there was a sick gleam to his eyes that made her feel small and helpless. It was a look that told her, as clearly as anything he and his cock had done to her today, that he saw her as nothing more than a plaything.

“Sorry,” he drawled with a grin, “but you look like a fine, upstanding young woman to me. I only like to spend time with sluts. Happy, playful sluts who can’t wait to have some fun.”

Forcing a smile onto her face was harder than any filthy task she’d performed for him, but she managed it, burying her pride somewhere deep down. “I… I can be a slut for you. Please let me a slut for you… sir.” She turned around and wagged her ass back and forth. “S-see, I, I’ve got a wiggly tushie just f-for you, sir.”

He sucked at his teeth as he looked her up and down, reveling in her fear and humiliation. “Hmm, I don’t know… but I’m willing to be convinced. Go see what the others think.”

“O-others?” Sakura asked weakly.

The man pointed behind her, right at her parents. “Yeah, those are your folks, right? Tossed them out here just before I came into your bedroom for some private time. Go let them know what their daughter is.” He leaned in close and whispered what he wanted from her. Sakura shuddered and looked up at him helplessly. Why? He’d already done so much to her, and now she was giving him permission to do even worse. Why did he have to be so cruel too? But he answered her look with one of pleased, guilt free sadism, and her head sank. “You’re **right** ,” he said, as though she’d voiced her thoughts. “What am I thinking, letting an animal like you run around without a leash? One second.”

After everything she’d been through, Sakura couldn’t spare more than a pained whimper when he produced a knife and calmly sawed through three of her tails. He knotted them together and then tied one end of the gruesome rope around her neck, tight enough to press uncomfortably on the hollow of her throat. Holding the other end in his hand, he clicked his tongue. “There now, get moving. Or don’t, if you’re not up for it. There’s plenty of men here who’d be happy to play with you today, slut or not. I could always find someone else who’d appreciate my attention more.”

The pink haired girl took the hint and numbly walked over to her parents. The soldiers paid her barely any attention, focused on enjoying their captives, but she saw her mother shudder as she took in her daughter’s state, and saw fresh tears come to her father’s eyes. Sakura took a deep breath, prayed for something or someone to save them from this, and then got started. She turned around and bent over, sticking her ass out towards them. “L-look at what a… a happy butt slut I am n-now,” she stammered, trying to make herself sound cheerful like he’d ordered.

She pulled her cheeks apart, showing her parents the red and raw asshole that had just been raped. “See how much hot cream my new owner filled me with?” she asked, feeling some of his seed dribbling out of her. “Doesn’t it look tasty?” She forced two fingers into her sore butt, grimacing in pain, and scooped out some of the white filth. Then she forced a smile onto her face and turned her head to let her parents see her lap it off of her fingers. “Y-yum yum yum…”

That was all she’d been ordered to do, but when Sakura looked back at her rapist and captor, he was holding his stiff cock in his hand with a smile. “If you thought that was tasty,” he suggested, “why not try some straight from the tap?” He stepped closer until his filthy cock was just inches from her face, fresh precum already leaking from the tip. It looked disgusting, and even if she were to close her eyes from the sight and make herself forget that it had been balls deep in her guts only a few minutes ago, the stink of it communicated all too clearly what they’d just been doing. “I promised you some warm cum to chase away the cold, after all. Fix yourself a hot drink, and then we’ll go back inside for another nice long pussy fuck.”

Fresh tears of humiliation trickled down her cheeks as she opened her mouth and let him in.

At first, Sakura expected him to shoving himself deeper at any moment. That was exactly what one of his comrades was doing to her mother, his scrotum slapping against her chin as he violently thrust in and out of her throat. But her – she resisted the word, but it came to her anyway – her **owner** seemed content to just stand there. Eventually she realized that he was perfectly happy to not make her do anything. The others around her were being brutally raped, but Sakura? She was going to have to suck and lick and play with him until he was satisfied.

The tips of her ears were nearly as pink as her hair as she gave him what he wanted, running her tongue over his thick shaft. To her disgust, it felt familiar to her; after hours of taking it into herself, of intimately feeling every inch as she squeezed for his pleasure, she almost knew the shape of his prick as readily as her own face. The bump rubbing against the roof of her mouth was the same one that occasionally stimulated her sensitive spots, bringing a rush of shame and pleasure. The vein she was tonguing was the one that would pulse while he was close to finishing, as though she was feeling his sperm travel through him on its way to be spat into her insides.

Sakura felt him begin to twitch inside her, and then whatever tiny vestiges of hope she’d had of getting this over quickly died as he pulled himself out of her to stop the approaching orgasm. His cock was still sticky with cum as he rested it against her face, leaving a dirty wet smear. “No hurry, right foxy?” he asked.

“N-no, sir,” she agreed. She watched her mother get raped for a minute more before he rubbed his cock against her lips and she swallowed him back up.

* * *

The humans’ faces made satisfying crunches when Ichika punched them. It wasn’t much, but in this spiraling disaster of a day, she had to take joy wherever she could find it.

The squad had been fifteen men strong when the three kitsune had found it. Now, the last soldier upright trembled as he pointed his gun at Ichika. “D-don’t move! You bitch!” If it hadn’t all been so tragic, she would’ve found his terrified anger amusing. He was barely more than a child.

Miku and Kumi paced around the man, growling. The twins were two of her best fighters, especially when they were together and on four legs. They spent more time out of the village than they did in it, preferring to live off the land in their natural forms. About the only times they showed up regularly was during celebrations, particularly ones involving alcohol. There wasn’t a man or woman around that they couldn’t drink under the table.

They weren’t in a festive mood right now, though. Both foxes were soaked in blood, and not all of it was human. These intruders weren’t much on their own, but their sheer numbers and firearms made them more than a threat. Ichika herself had accumulated at least three bullet wounds in various stages of healing. They’d come prepared for fighting foxes too; kitsune weren’t immune to bullets in the first place, but the high calibre rounds they’d brought left wounds that their regeneration couldn’t handle quickly.

The twins’ growling must have spooked the man, because he pulled the trigger without waiting to see if she’d obey his order. The kitsune captain twisted to the side, narrowly dodging, and lunged forward before he could shoot again. The tip of her spear sank into his belly, and a flick of her wrist sent some of his guts splattering to the ground. Ichika yanked the spear back out, and her opponent slumped to the ground to join the dead and dying.

The village was lost. It didn’t take a tactical genius to see that. The foxfire illusions that had kept them safe for centuries had proven utterly worthless. Ichika had taken Hanabi’s story of a woman who could see through foxfire at face value, though inwardly she’d hoped that the tale had been exaggerated by the girl’s trauma, but it had seemed impossible for a single woman to defeat the numerous and powerful wards in place. But the truth was undeniable. The invading force had entered the village simultaneously from at least six different points, all of which would have been independently guarded. The only way something like that could happen was if the foxfire hadn’t worked.

With their best line of defense utterly compromised, they’d been helpless. The soldiers hadn’t positioned themselves at random, either; they’d seized control of the most likely routes the kitsune would take to escape. Already dozens, maybe hundreds of villagers trying to flee had been captured. As for the extra sentries who’d been monitoring the forest… she’d heard nothing from them, and received no response to the emergency flares they’d shot up. At this point, after seeing what the soldiers were doing to the captured villagers, the most she could hope for was that they’d been killed quickly and painlessly.

Even the meager resistance they were mounting now was almost entirely thanks to the captain’s habit of waking up early for her morning routine. If she hadn’t already been up and outside when the soldiers came in, and close enough to the police station to race inside and start sounding the alarms, there might have been no one at all standing up to the invaders right now. And she’d still been too late for many; she’d gone to her brother’s house next, hoping to both confirm her family’s safety and recruit his help in their defense, but Kamio’s home was already damaged and empty, save for the corpses of soldiers.

Ichika wanted to throw her head back and scream at the heavens. This was all her fault. It didn’t matter that no one had ever anticipated a coordinated military assault on this scale. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t have known the wards wouldn’t do their job. It didn’t matter that she had only a few dozen kitsune at her command, a paltry force against these kinds of numbers. Defending the village had been her responsibility. Every man, woman, and child in the village had trusted her to keep them safe, and she’d failed them. She’d thought that after all this time she’d become someone stronger, someone who could protect the people she cared about… but she felt just as helpless as she ever had.

The blonde captain tried to shake the dark thoughts from her head. She didn’t have time for guilt. The village was lost, but there were still individuals who could be saved. If she could break through one of the chokepoints, some of the citizens would be able to flee into the forest. It was all she could do right now. Save the ones she could, and then go from there.

They were nearly there now. This was the most developed part of the village, with enough houses and roads that it almost resembled a genuine city. She’d chosen this section deliberately: the urban structures blocked the view, providing them a chance to reach the chokepoint without being seen. This squad had been the last thing standing between them and their destination.

Ichika looked at the twins and they nodded back wordlessly. They knew how suicidal this mission was likely to turn out. They couldn’t see what was waiting for them any more than the enemy could see them, so they didn’t even know what they were going up against. But given the number of invaders, it would probably be the three of them against a literal army; in all likelihood, they were walking to their deaths. But it was the only way.

The scent reached Miku first and she growled out a warning. A moment later Kumi echoed it. It took Ichika’s human form just a little longer to pick it up. Something was coming. Not quite human, and not quite fox. Something she’d never smelled before.

The gray furred beast attacked so quickly that Ichika didn’t even have time to bring up her spear. It moved like lightning, streaking into view from around the corner and barreling into her with the force of a freight train. She hit the ground hard, the monster’s teeth already going for her neck, and only her natural reflexes saved her, her hands coming up to grapple with the beast.

The thing on top of her looked like a fox, but her nose told her that wasn’t true. Whatever it was, it was sickeningly strong. Ichika had always prided herself on being one of the strongest kitsune in the village, physically speaking, but it was all she could do to hold the beast’s head back. It was far stronger than her, and quicker too.

With her hands desperately struggling against its jaws, she couldn’t defend the rest of herself. Its claws sliced her open at the stomach, disemboweling her as thoroughly as she’d just done to the human soldier.

The weight atop her abruptly vanished. Miku and Kumi rolled around with the not-fox, biting and clawing. It was stronger than both of them put together, but they’d hunted together for most of their lives. The pair worked in tandem, using pack tactics and taking advantage of blind spots.

If their opponent had been a kitsune, even an absurdly powerful one, that would have been the end of the fight. For all its strength and speed, the beast was clumsy, and the twins left the thing bleeding in half a dozen different places, each wound too serious to heal quickly. But it wasn’t a kitsune, and the sight of its wounds closing up before her eyes sent a spike of pure terror through Ichika.

This thing had to be a gumiho. It didn’t seem as powerful as the ones she’d heard horror stories about, but it was still stronger, faster, and sturdier than any natural kitsune. A hundred soldiers would’ve been less of a threat than this one monster. Ichika had no idea how these humans had persuaded such a creature to ally with them. It was patently ridiculous. Gumiho **ate** humans. This was like seeing mice with a pet cat.

The twins must have had the same realization, because they drew back, caution overtaking their more aggressive instincts. That proved a mistake, as the beast had no such hesitation. It tackled Kumi, and neither she nor her sister could stop the thing from sinking its teeth into her neck. Ichika expected to see blood spray up, but no such thing happened.

Despite that, Kumi howled in agony, and something buried in the fur around the monster’s throat glowed. Ichika felt a wave of sharp cold sweep through her, and suddenly Kumi transformed, becoming a human clothed only in her fox skin. Her figure was slender, and her shaggy brown hair went all the way down to her tails. The kitsune squirmed beneath the beast, its jaws still tight around her throat.

Claws ripped away Kumi’s fox skin, and the woman was rendered naked under her assailant. Her struggles increased, becoming a frenzied panic at odds with her usual grace. It didn’t take long to see why: the gumiho was fully erect, its thick cock rubbing against its foe’s flat stomach. Kumi shuddered as it humped her eagerly, making its intentions for her all too clear.

Her sister sprang forward to help her, but the beast had expected her move. Six of its tails intercepted her, catching the fox mid stride and lifting her up into the air. Miku struggled against them, until there was an ugly crack of bones breaking, and then she screamed and went limp. The cracking sounds didn’t cease. The gumiho toyed with Miku’s body, snapping bone after bone almost casually as it molested her sister.

The blonde captain forced herself to sit up, and the wave of dizziness and nausea that came nearly knocked her out. Her stomach still hung open, blood and viscera leaking out past her hands. It wasn’t a fatal wound – probably, maybe – but for now she was as helpless as a baby rodent.

Kumi jolted as the beast’s cock rammed between her legs, hitting her like a sledgehammer. It was far too big, but its jaws were still pinning her down, and it pushed. Ichika’s friend for centuries wailed as the monster overpowered her resistance and crammed its throbbing prick into her. Her screams were drowned out by its howl of triumph as it began violently fucking her.

Ichika watched the rape in horror. She longed to look away, but she forced herself to watch. It was the least she could do for the woman. That was why she saw clearly what the beast did to Miku. It pulled her limp form close, and pressed the thing on its neck -a metal collar – against the fox’s bloody side. The collar glowed, another wave of cold sweeping out of it to buffet the captain, and Miku transformed just as her sister had.

The woman’s fox skin fell to the ground as sliced up rags, and then Miku let out a scream that was cut off as soon as it started. The gumiho had stuffed one of its tails down her throat to silence her. And… Ichika turned her head and threw up. Its violation wasn’t limited to the poor girl’s throat. Even as it rammed its tail in and out of her choking gullet, even as its cock tore up her twin sister’s insides to sate its lust, more tails were forcing their way into her pussy and asshole. Both sisters moaned in obscene harmony as the gumiho raped them.

Still clutching her stomach with one hand to keep her insides from falling out, Ichika crawled backwards with the other, slowly making her way across the dirt as she inched away from the gumiho, her eyes remaining fixed on it. The monster ignored her retreat, intent on enjoying its two captive kitsune. Or maybe it just knew that it could catch up to her in moments, and saw no reason to interrupt its fun.

Kumi’s screams rose by an octave, and Ichika saw her belly bulge slightly at the same time her rapist howled happily, not slowing down as it pumped her full of cum. It pulled out of her, the last of its load spurting onto her chest and stomach. Its prick was as hard and thick as ever, and with easy familiarity the beast switched the positions of its victims. Miku was slammed down onto the ground, while Kumi was pulled up into the air by writhing tails that sank into her holes. Less than ten seconds after it finished raping Kumi, the gumiho was already pounding her sister.

A gunshot rang out, and the gumiho stiffened, its right eye now just a bloody socket.

Ichika took careful aim with the stolen gun and fired again, just barely missing its other eye. The guns that had been intended for killing kitsune weren’t nearly as effective on gumiho, but they were still powerful enough to pack a punch.

The creature bellowed with rage and let Kumi drop to the ground. A moment later Miku cried out as it ripped itself out of her, nearly turning her inside out in the process. Ichika emptied the rest of the gun into it, but it didn’t seem to do much more than annoy it. She was so exhausted that the gun felt like it weighed a hundred pounds as it slipped from her fingers.

The gumiho charged at her. Whether to kill, rape, or eat her, she had no idea. Probably all three, in one order or another. Ichika could only slump down and wait for it. The beast leapt.

And then jerked to a stop in midair.

Blood dripped down the length of Ichika’s spear as she dismissed the foxfire that had concealed it. At any other time a simple cloak like that would’ve been effortless, but in this unnaturally bitter cold, that single working of foxfire had required everything she had. She’d braced the spear with her own body, and the impact had been powerful enough to drive the butt of the spear into her flesh, but it was nothing compared to what the gumiho had intended for her.

The beast snarled and snapped at her, but its own momentum had driven the thick spear through its entire body, and combined with the wounds the twins had given it and the gunshots, it was too much damage for even its fabled healing powers to overcome. Its cries weakened, and the monster’s remaining eye closed forever.

The three kitsune slowly picked themselves back up. Ichika was light headed, and her fingers trembled so badly she could barely grip her spear. Miku and Kumi were huddled together, weeping. None of them were in any shape to keep fighting. Their plan had failed before it had even begun.

Ichika allowed herself to feel just a hint of pride though. Three kitsune defeating a gumiho all by themselves: it was the sort of feat people wrote songs about. She had no expectations that there would be any song about this, of course. No one would ever know about what they’d done. Still, it was a major blow against the enemy. She still didn’t know their full numbers, but a mythical creature like this had to have been one of their trump cards.

A new scent made her gasp. Another?! There was no denying that the creature approaching smelled just like the dead gumiho at their feet. How could they have possibly found and recruited **two** of the damned things?! “Come on,” she wheezed, lurching forward. “We have to… fall back…”

She scented a third. A fourth. A fifth.

Half convinced now that this had to be a nightmare, Ichika loped away in her fox form, spear clenched in her teeth, the twins just behind her. They sought higher ground, abandoning the buildings that had offered them cover. Cover wouldn’t stop a gumiho from sniffing them out. What she wanted more than anything right now was to see. Her nose had to be lying to her. This morning, she would’ve doubted that there were more than a dozen gumiho left in the entire world, and now she was supposed to believe that a bunch of humans had that many at their beck and call?

The kitsune reached the open air, and Ichika twisted around to see the choke point behind them. Just as they’d expected, a small army of the humans milled there, more than the trio could have possibly defeated.

And gumiho. Dozens and dozens of gumiho.

Ichika laughed hollowly as she watched the impossible enemy spreading out. She could smell even more in all directions. There had to be hundreds of them altogether, maybe even more gumiho here than there were kitsune. This was complete madness. She let her spear drop from her teeth and sank to the ground, laughing until she cried. Miku and Kumi were still running, calling for her to join them, but she ignored them. There was no point in going anywhere.

The guilt that had plagued her was gone. The village hadn’t fallen because of any inadequacy on her part. Given a hundred times as many warriors and a decade to prepare, this fight would have gone the same way. If things had been like they were before, back during the War, then maybe they would have a chance, but now? No. Nothing she’d done would have mattered. She didn’t matter. The village didn’t matter. They were an anthill being stamped by a boot.

She was still laughing when the gumiho reached her.

* * *

Jessica Wilmingshire padded quietly behind Master Levi in her fox form, her head low. His attention wasn’t on her right now, and she was happy to keep it that way, which meant remaining on her best behavior and not drawing his attention. The leash clipped to his belt was too short to offer much of any slack. Crawl a little too slowly, and it would catch and choke her. Crawl a little too quickly, and she would bump into the back of his legs. She knew from experience that either could merit punishment. So she moved with extreme care, doing her best to match his stride perfectly.

  
Her hyper vigilance was motivated by more than just healthy fear of her owner. The more attention she paid to crawling perfectly and silently, the less she had for the horrors all around her. There had been a time when the scenes of brutality would have excited her. For years she’d seen women experience these sorts of abuses and worse, and her usual reaction had been amusement or indifference. But that had been before she learned her true place in the world, before she’d found out, repeatedly and with great detail, just what it felt like to be on the receiving end of the games she’d enjoyed so much.

Nearby, a fox woman was slumped against the wall of a house, her face pressed against it while soldiers took turns enjoying her ass from behind. It looked like a very uncomfortable position, but after a few seconds Jessica realized why the woman was in it: they’d nailed her tongue to the wall. The kitsune looked exhausted, and tears dripped to the ground in a steady rain, but her hips kept moving in a frenzy, violently fucking her own bleeding asshole on the men. She knew that the minute she stopped and made them fuck her themselves was the minute her tongue would be ripped right out of her mouth.

One of the soldiers waiting his turn snickered and pointed his cock at the wall. “Must be getting thirsty, right whore?” he asked as he began spraying the side of the house with urine. Some it splashed back to land on her face, and droplets of it rolled down the wall to meet her tongue. “There you go! A warm drink for our little ass slut!”

“Eehnk ewww,” she croaked.

It was a grotesque sight, but there were others around that would have eagerly traded places with the woman. Many of the troops brought by Master Levi had been human, but even more were vulpan. Their sexual appetites were nearly insatiable, and Jessica knew all too well how viciously they raped their victims. These kitsune were as much their pay as they were their targets. They had to hold back a little with other women, lest they go too far and literally fuck them to death, but the foxes had no such hope of an easy escape like that. Dozens of them were wailing and sobbing as vulpan mounted them, plunging their impossibly massive cocks into their favorite orifices.

It wasn’t only their cocks that they used, either. Vulpan tails could be quite sensitive, a fact that Master Levi frequently reminded her of. Ramming one into someone’s body and fucking them with it didn’t seem to be quite as pleasurable as using their dicks, but there was nothing stopping them from doing both. Jessica crawled by a woman close enough to touch who was flat on her back, arms and legs pinned and spread wide by four vulpan tails. The bestial soldier raping her was crouched over her head, beating her face black and blue as he repeatedly dropped his weight onto her, smashing his crotch against her head over and over while she choked on him. His other five tails were crammed into her lower holes, ramrodding them while she bucked and twisted, helpless to get away or draw breath. A happy howl from the vulpan and pitiful gurgling from his victim told Jessica that he’d just finished in her again, but his cock and tails showed no signs of slowing, let alone stopping. Jessica hoped that for the fox woman’s sake he grew bored of her before he pumped enough cum into her stomach to rupture something.

None of the vulpan here were the original ones that Jessica had met only briefly three years ago, as part of a violent orgy with Celeste and their former leader Akemi. Their kind were all long dead and gone. The lucky ones had perished shortly after their arrival at Paragon, picked off one by one before they knew what was happening. The others had been detained en masse and kept alive for months as guinea pigs, up to and including having their bodies turned literally inside out to study all the properties of their fox marbles. Only Akemi was left now, and she hadn’t touched a fox skin since the day Master Levi had ripped hers out of her.

Even after all this time, Jessica had difficulty thinking of herself as one of the vulpan. It was particularly ironic given that her fox form had become her default state in captivity. With rare exception, the only time she was allowed to be anything more than Master Levi’s ill treated and four legged pet was when he wanted to fuck her. There seemed to be a world of difference between herself and the savage, bloodthirsty creatures under his command, though.

For one, she was far smaller than them. A vulpan’s form closely resembled that of the fox their skin had belonged to, and the one that he’d forced upon her was one of the rejected ones. She was even smaller than a natural fox, and while the fox marble granted her power like the others, it was pitifully weak and offset by the inherent frailty of her form, resulting in her being no stronger than she was as a human. And even if she’d had the physical might of Master Levi’s best warriors, that would still pale in comparison to his own abilities. He’d chase her down as easily as a rabbit if she ever tried to flee, or just send Celeste out to do it for him, and she’d seen what happened to those who tried to escape Paragon; Master Levi usually made her watch.

The greatest secret of her new life, one that she’d do anything to protect, was that she didn’t actually mind being a fox. If her owner hadn’t been a sadistic, black hearted scoundrel, she thought she might have even been able to enjoy the experience. She knew that a power hungry man like him would never understand the appeal of being weak and helpless, so he’d assumed that she’d hate her state as badly as he would. But he didn’t need to understand; he would change his tactics in a heartbeat if he knew that she derived comfort from pretending that she was just an animal, without the worries or cares of her grueling life.

The irony of her situation wasn’t lost on her.

Jessica’s owner came to an abrupt stop, and the little fox nearly crashed into him before she caught herself. “Report,” he snapped at the young man in front of him.

“We think we’ve rounded up most of them, sir,” the soldier said, giving a crisp salute. Paragon recruits learned very quickly that the Petrov family demanded their respect. They could act however they liked with each other, and commit whatever atrocities they could imagine with their victims, but when dealing with Master Levi or any of his family, strict professionalism was required. Those who failed to learn that lesson would find themselves demoted from soldier to food. “We’re still sweeping the buildings for stragglers.”

“How many casualties?”  
  
Jessica could smell the fear sweat dripping down the soldier’s back. Master Levi wasn’t the type to shoot the messenger, but he was unforgiving of failure. “One hundred twenty seven men and…” He swallowed. “And one vulpan, sir.”

Master Levi immediately tensed, giving the man his full attention. “Injured or dead?”

“…Dead, sir. Looks like they used some of our own guns and impaled him on something.”  
  
Dead human soldiers had been expected, almost welcomed. This battle had been as much an initiation as it was a siege, a trial to determine who would be worthy of the next batch of fox marbles. That was why he’d sent them in first as the vanguard, and brought Paragon’s true forces in later to mop up the small pockets of resistance. But a dead vulpan… “Find the men who killed him,” Master Levi ordered. “They’ll make for a good demonstration once we’ve finished subduing the populace. Is there anything **else** you should be bringing to my attention?”

“Yes, sir,” said the soldier uneasily. “The building at the top of the hill… it’s been barricaded.”

The blond man’s eyes flicked towards the structure there. “Barricaded how, exactly?”  
  
“Some kind of foxfire. Lieutenant Foley requests bringing the fae in to neutralize it.”

“The ice cunt is busy right now,” Master Levi said flatly. He didn’t mention that she was back in their tent, unconscious and only barely alive. In order to get around the foxfire defenses of the village, Celeste had been ordered to reduce the temperature of the entire region. She’d very nearly killed herself complying, but it had worked, the cold weakening the foxfire enough to break down the illusions. The original plan had been to wait for a natural cold spell, which would have made her task far easier, but… Master Levi was not the most patient of men. “Tell the lieutenant I’ll take care of it myself.”

“Yes, sir.” The soldier saluted Master Levi again, then quickly spun on his heels, eager to relay the message and get out of the man’s presence.

Jessica gagged as Master Levi gave her leash an unexpected tug that nearly dragged her off her feet as it choked her. “Come on, bitch,” he said, not bothering to look back at her. “Let’s take a walk.”

Twenty four hours ago, the journey up the hill would have been a scenic one. The slope was gentle enough to make the winding dirt path more a suggestion than a requirement, and covered with a dazzling and aromatic display of flowers. In other circumstances, Jessica would have found the sight of it breathtaking. But now, she barely noticed the flora as she trudged behind her owner. There were far more pressing – and horrifying – sights to take in along the way.

A nearby male kitsune screamed in pain as a trio of soldiers went at him with whips. All nine of his tails had been staked to the ground along with his hands and feet, pinning him there as thoroughly as a butterfly while the men whipped him bloody. As they tortured him, three female kitsune were kneeling in a submissive posture and frantically sucking on their cocks.

“That’s enough tongue, slut,” said one of the men. “I want to shoot off in that throat of yours.” His new fucktoy began making choking sounds as he pressed her head firmly against his crotch, forcing his entire length down her gullet. “Careful not to pass out,” he taunted as he did his best to make her do just that. “Won’t be much left of your brother if he has to wait for you to take a nap before you manage to guzzle my load and save him.” Drool ran down her chin and her eyes were rolled back into her head, but she doggedly sucked at him, trying to finish the job before the oxygen deprivation caught up to her.

The youngest looking fox yelped as her partner spat on her and shoved her away. “Fucking worthless,” he complained. “Dumb bitch doesn’t even know how to suck. Let’s just kill this wuss and find some better cumdumps to play with.” The staked kitsune screamed again as the soldier stomped on his leg, breaking it in several places. “Aww, did that hurt?” he mocked. “Should’ve taught your daughter how to handle a damn cock then. If you’d raised her to be a proper fleshlight, she wouldn’t be fucking up such a simple request.”

“Please,” the daughter begged, crawling towards him. “Please let me try again! I can be a good c-cumdump, I promise! Y-you can use me any way you like!” She pawed at his leg as she pleaded with him to rape her. “I-I-I’m still a virgin! Take my virginity, please!”

The third woman had her rapist’s cock buried between her round breasts so that only the head poked out, which she diligently licked and sucked while she massaged the shaft with her tits. “Hear that, mommy? Maybe you should go over there and give your little girl a few pointers on sucking dick. But before you can do that…” he pulled his prick free of her chest and slapped her cheek with it, making her flinch. “If you’re not careful, your hubby’s going to think you’re unhappy with your new lover.”  
  
“I’m trying, sir,” the wife pleaded. “I really am. I love your big thick cock! It’s so, so… warm and delicious! So much better than my husband’s!” She was rocking back and forth, humping herself on the man’s shoe. “I’m almost ready to cum, I swear!”

“Then get to it,” he told her bluntly, sliding his cock back into the valley of her breasts. “I’m not finishing until you do, even if that means I gotta flay hubby alive while you frig yourself. Aren’t I a considerate lover?”

“Yes sir, thank you sir!” she said quickly, and redoubled her efforts.

As Jessica and Master Levi passed by them, muffled gagging announced that the sister had finally succeeded in sucking off her partner. Even as cum spurted out her nose, her consciousness fled, her body going limp and her bladder releasing to wet the grass beneath her. The soldier held her head up with one hand until he was finished cumming in her, then let her drop into a heap atop the piss soaked ground. “Filthy cocksucker,” he said, laughing, and pointed his softening cock at her. Hot urine struck her cheek, and he angled the stream to leave no part of her undefiled.

Meanwhile, the daughter was on all fours fucking herself on her partner’s cock, her sore ass cheeks slapping against his hips in a furious staccato beat. Every time he bottomed out, she let out a small shrill sound of pain, but she kept up the pace. Blood dripped down both of them where their bodies joined. “Credit where credit’s due,” the soldier told the staked fox as he stood still, letting the man’s daughter do all the work. “Your girl has a lot to learn about taking proper care of a man’s prick, but she’s got the makings of a decent cock holster. Thanks for spending the last hundred years or whatever raising my future sperm bank!”

Last of all was the wife, who was moaning seductively and telling her own rapist how much she loved him while his boot pumped between her legs and his cock pumped between her breasts. Her own juices ran down her thighs, matched by the precum running down her chest. As she reached the point of no return, however, her voice faltered, and her expression of feigned delight crumpled into heaving sobs. “I’m sorry!” she blubbered as she came. “Oh please my love I’m sorry!” Her tears sent her partner over the edge, and he began happily painting her face with his seed.

All around them were similar tableaus. There were hundreds of kitsune in the village, and every last one of them was being raped or tortured. Most of them, the unlucky ones, would eventually be transported to the Paradisium in chains and cages to be used as breeding stock or meat. The lucky ones would already be dead by then.

Jessica often wished that she had been so lucky on the night George was murdered. If she’d known what the future held, she would have begged her husband to kill her while their captor wasn’t looking. For the first few months, she’d waited for Master Levi to get tired of her and kill her, but he had no intention of ever letting her escape that way. She had made him look foolish once, and there was no greater sin.

There were days when she cursed the unfairness of her situation. She had plenty of excuses that she could line up in a row to help her feel sorry for herself. Yes, she’d owned slaves before, abused them and raped them and treated them harshly, but she was never **cruel**. She’d never hurt someone just to make them hurt. Among her family and peers, she’d actually been considered laughably soft for the way she treated those beneath her. She still remembered George’s amusement the first time he’d heard her thank a slave for doing her job. The girl had been bringing her a cup of tea, and he’d asked Jessica if she also intended to thank the hot water heater and the used tea leaves while she was at it.

And she’d been born into a life where owning slaves was commonplace, no more a moral quandary than owning a pet. Before she could even walk, there were people responsible for waiting on her hand and foot. They’d dressed her, fed her, tended to her every want and whim. When she’d reached puberty, her own mother had gifted her a bedroom slave to help “quell any unsightly urges”. The woman had chosen a girl Jessica’s age for the task, since losing her “true” virginity, as she’d called it, to a piece of property would have been a mortifying event and a black stain on her reputation. No one, not even herself, had bothered to consider what her own sexual preferences were; it was expected in their social circles that helping her husband play with his slaves was part of a wife’s duty. It wasn’t until her abduction, and the sick acts that she’d been forced to perform with Celeste and others, that Jessica had discovered that she wasn’t even truly interested in women.

She had tried to help Celeste. She had tried to protect her husband. She had, in her own way, tried to be a good person all her life. And no matter what misdeeds she’d performed, none of them had been so awful as to deserve the living hell that she’d found herself in for the last three years. None of them made her more worthy of karmic misfortune than the man who’d so thoroughly enjoyed her suffering all this time. It wasn’t fair.

So many excuses. All of them worthless. As though she’d ever spared a moment’s thought for what was fair when she was the one on top. As though her lack of sadism had been a choice that deserved praise. As though if her old self had ever met someone in her present situation, she would’ve lost any sleep over the injustice of it. Jessica Wilmingshire knew that she had not been a good person. She’d been stupid, blind, and happy to swallow every pleasant lie that justified the way she lived her life.

And now she was here. Master Levi’s toy until the day she died.

Further up the hill, they encountered a female fox hanging upside down from a tree branch, her ankles swollen and bloody from rope burns. She looked more dead than alive, and was living proof that it was difficult to do permanent damage to a kitsune, but not impossible. Half of her fingers had been twisted and bent into such unnatural positions that they could no longer heal, and the other half had been bitten off. Chunks of flesh had been cut, torn, and chewed off of her, the wounds cauterized with a blowtorch. Her tails had all been ripped off, her eyelids sewn shut, and not a tooth could be seen in her mouth as it hung listlessly open, cum dribbling out to run down her face. And last but not least, several dozen nails had been driven into her stomach to form four crude letters: I BIT.

Jessica tried not to stare at the gruesome sight. From up here, she could see that the tortured kitsune was not unique. More hanging bodies dotted trees throughout the village below. All of them had been condemned to death for similar acts of defiance, and would remain hanging until they’d perished from lack of food and water. Their lingering executions were a warning to anyone else that might be thinking of rebellion.

  * 


Master Levi didn’t even seem to notice the dying woman. His attention was on the large stone building they were coming up on. It wasn’t an ostentatious place by any means; it didn’t dazzle the eye with its aesthetics or boast any impressive stonework. But its simple design radiated a sense of stability and comfort. To approach it felt almost like coming home. But its preternatural warmth was dampened by the ring of soldiers surrounding the place with guns drawn.

A vague red shimmer in the air marked the foxfire barrier the messenger had reported. A few of the men were beating at it with the butts of their weapons, but despite its appearance, it seemed as firm and unyielding as a real wall. Master Levi rested one hand against it. “So this is your last defense?” he sneered. “Even for a bunch of pathetic animals, I expected better.” He raised his voice. “And you must be the cunt responsible for this.”

His comment was addressed to the fox sitting cross-legged in front of the temple entrance with her eyes closed. Her long hair was the color of wheat, and she wore the traditional red skirt and white kimono of a Japanese priestess. Whatever she was doing, it seemed to require her full concentration. Her brow was scrunched with effort, and her mouth occasionally moved as though she were talking to herself. She offered no reaction at all to Master Levi’s words.

Anxiety twisted Jessica’s stomach into knots. She had by necessity become an expert when it came to Master Levi’s short temper. There were all manner of things that could set him off, and being ignored was high on the list. Whether this priestess was deliberately slighting him or genuinely hadn’t heard him was irrelevant; she had just ensured that her fate would be even crueler than most. Jessica watched her owner clench his fist in frustration and held back a terrified whimper. The last thing she wanted to do right now was remind him of her existence.

“I’ll give you a choice, animal,” he snarled. “You can surrender yourself right now and die slowly and painfully, where all your kind can see and learn from your mistakes, but those you’re sheltering will be forgiven for your foolishness. Or you can make me come in there. If you do, it will be those you’re trying to protect right now who will die in agony, and I’ll make you watch each and every one of them.”

When he received no answer, he cursed and turned to his men. “Get ready to sweep the place the moment the barrier is down,” he ordered. “I want every last vermin in that building found, restrained, and screaming for mercy before I’m done ripping that bitch’s clothes off. Understand?”

“Yes sir!” said the men immediately. Some of them looked worried about their leader’s anger too, but the most common expression was malicious lust. Most of the invasion force was already busy enjoying the spoils of their conquest, fucking whatever captive foxes caught their eye as hard and as often as possible. These men were among the last still on duty, and were eager to put down their weapons and join in the frenzy.

Even the most bloodthirsty among them shrank back when Master Levi transformed, though. When Jessica had first been captured, the process had taken the man several seconds, but it had grown steadily shorter over time. By now the transition was nearly instantaneous. The sneering blond man vanished, and in his place was a massive red fox whose tails lashed the ground impatiently. The leash that had connected the woman to him fell to the ground, and she wasted no time drawing back from him, prostrating herself on the ground in a show of submission. Master Levi was always the most violent when he first transformed, before he took control of the buried instincts telling him to eat and kill everyone around him.

The fox’s tails sounded like rolling thunder as they slammed against the foxfire barrier with enough force to punch through steel. It was immediately clear that the barrier couldn’t withstand his assault for long. Its light flickered and wavered, becoming more transparent with every hammer blow. Each hit made the woman who sat at the temple entrance rock back as though she’d been struck, and Jessica saw a small trickle of blood escape her mouth. She wasn’t feeling the full force of the attack – if she had, she would have been smashed flat by the first blow – but enough was getting through to hurt her.

Ten blows was all it took, and then the fox reared back and brought a heavy paw down on the barrier. His claws sank into the glowing wall and he tore it apart like tissue paper, the scattered bits of light fading as they drifted toward the ground. At the same time, the sitting woman let out a cry of pain, and several bloodstains appeared on the front of her white kimono. The cry had barely left her lips before being cut off by Master Levi’s heavy bulk crashing into her. Jessica had seen her owner rape women in his fox form before, and experienced it herself countless times, but it remained a grisly image that made her stomach turn.

Little of the priestess could actually be seen anymore, just her tails splayed out all around her and her bare hands at her sides, which were frantically pawing at the behemoth on top of her with as much success as a child trying to beat back an ocean wave. A thump loud enough to shake the earth marked the moment that Master Levi penetrated her. More thumps followed, fast and heavy as Jessica’s owner used his prick to punish the kitsune. “This is now their lifeline, cunt,” snarled the vulpan. “The moment I decide my cock belongs anywhere but inside this slutty, worthless, furry fleshlight, is the moment that the people in there start getting strung up.”

Jessica didn’t have to see the woman to know what was happening. She’d experienced it firsthand more than enough times to have a perfect mental image. Right now his cock would be pushing so deep inside her that her belly bulged with its outline. It was an experience equal parts agonizing, terrifying, and nauseating, feeling him rearrange internal organs so that he could shove himself deeper. She’d be trying to scream, to howl out the absolute misery of having her insides pummeled hard enough to leave bruises, but one of his tails would already be tight around her neck, and another would be thrusting in and out of her gullet like an oversized pipe cleaner. Master Levi was rarely satisfied with fucking just one hole at a time these days. His tails wouldn’t derive as much pleasure from her orifices as his dick did, but the sensation was only a bonus; his goal was to keep her unused holes chafed, swollen, and sore, so that they’d be tight and hot when he was ready to fuck them for real. From the way two of his tails were bent between his legs, they were busy scrubbing the insides of his victim’s guts.

Master Levi’s furious thrusting paused, but the pinned woman’s reaction seemed to be growing even more frantic, fingernails tearing in her attempt to push him away. That would be him knotting inside her. That massive swelling protrusion at the base of his cock made for a tight fit for even the loosest of holes, and it didn’t grow any easier to take with experience. He always had to work to squeeze it in at the beginning, and now he was savoring the feel of her soft, stretched pussy lips wrapped around him. Jessica could only hope that they were especially pleasant for him, because once he decided to move on…

The priestess’s body spasmed violently as the thrusting resumed, even harder than before. He was pounding her cunt with as much ferocity and raw power as he’d pounded the wall a minute ago, and gambling that she’d be resilient enough not to be torn in half. Jessica wished that she could say that she’d never seen it happen. His knotted prick would be nearly a blur as it hollowed her out, risking her life for the sake of his impatient balls. By now she’d be in so much pain that she’d barely be cognizant of what was going on. Between his cock and his tails, she would be airtight, her holes bloody and aching, and she probably hadn’t been allowed a single breath since he’d first pounced. She’d be wondering if she was about to die, and uncertain if it was an outcome to fear or hope for.

The thrusting stopped with a final, extra powerful lunge that carried with it the sounds of bone crunching. Odds were he’d just shattered her pelvis, but the hot cum gushing into her was probably stealing all her attention away for now. His cockhead would already be wedged into her womb, hosing down her pocket with his sperm. Master Levi and the vulpan like him hadn’t proved any more successful in breeding kitsune than humans had, but not for lack of trying. Nor lack of quantity, when it came to the size of her master’s loads… Jessica had spent many sleepless nights hyper conscious of the thick, sticky slime that he’d left plastering her insides and leaking out from between her legs and lips, half convinced that she could feel her ovaries soaking in the stuff.

The woman’s body went completely limp, and Jessica knew that Master Levi had finished cumming and allowed her to breathe. Her brutal violation was over… for a few seconds. Then her body went rigid again, signifying that she was being choked once more, and the thrusting began anew. If the priestess was lucky, he’d be curious to see what her other holes would like, and would shift position to try them out after another four or five rapes. If she wasn’t, he’d abuse her cunt for hours before moving on. Either way, what had just transpired was only the first of what promised to be dozens of rapes before he was finished with her. And after seeing what it meant to be strung up, Jessica hoped for everyone’s sake that the unknown woman kept Master Levi’s cock happy for a long, long time.

“What the hell are you standing around for?” the fox growled, and Jessica wasn’t the only one to flinch. Several of the soldiers had been spellbound by the sheer power and energy of what they’d just witnessed. Rapes by vulpan were nothing new, but this was on a completely different level. Master Levi had already seemed so impossibly strong three years ago, but that had been before Paragon had the opportunity to experiment on a hundred captured wild vulpan and their treasure trove of marbles. Before his sister had used the results of that research to create the artificial marbles that Jessica herself and the vulpan soldiers here all possessed. Now he was like a vengeful, rapacious god. Where there had once been hundreds of naturally formed fox marbles, stored two or three at a time within each vulpan, now only a small handful existed, their stolen power consolidated. And Master Levi held the strongest of all of them.

“All of you get the fuck in there, **now**!” he snapped, and the remaining soldiers nearly fell over themselves in their scramble to obey. “You too, bitch! Make yourself useful for once.”

Jessica squeaked in terror. “Yes Master Levi, right away Master Levi,” she breathed, already bounding forward to catch up with the others. Nothing in the world was more important to her than obedience. Not anymore.

The building’s interior held the same plain but warm atmosphere as its exterior. Several foxes were already tied up in the main hall, squirming and whimpering as they were violated by eager soldiers. Now that they were out of Master Levi’s sight, the men all seemed much more relaxed, and went at their task more casually. “And what the fuck is that?” one of them asked cheerfully, slapping a blonde fox to get her attention while his friend ass raped her. He pointed at the lit brazier. “You foxies planning on hosting the next Olympics or something?” He laughed at his own joke.

“I-Inari’s… Flame…” panted the fox as she was raped. “P-please… don’t…”  
  
“Don’t fuck with it?” he asked, grinning.

“Please… I’ll do… do anything you want…” Several of the other foxes were nodding their heads in agreement, and all of them looked more scared about the soldiers messing with the brazier than they were about being raped. “Just… just leave it alone… please… it… it’s sacred…” Jessica felt a pang of regret at their earnestness. These kitsune truly didn’t understand how men like Master Levi and his troops operated. She had no idea what the religious significance of the flame was, but she knew that they’d just given the soldiers every reason to desecrate it.

Sure enough, the man smirked as he turned to his companions. “I don’t know, boys. I don’t think we can trust a bunch of dirty little foxes to demonstrate proper fire safety, right? We’d better help ‘em out.”

Foxes cried out in dismay as he and several of the others put their shoulders to the brazier and knocked it over, sending hot coals tumbling across the stone floor and swiftly reducing the blaze to a scattering of weak flames. “See what I mean?” he said. “Total fire hazard.” He winked at one of the foxes. “Good thing you sexy ladies have us around now. Don’t want any cute little fucktoys getting burnt.”

Jessica knew exactly what was coming when he unzipped his pants, but the kitsune were slower on the uptake. They were begging him to stop, but it wasn’t until they saw him point his cock at some of the fallen coals that they began screaming. All of them were yelling over each other, trying to convince the soldiers to reconsider, but not a single one of the men were listening. Those whose dicks weren’t already busy inside a fox joined the first man in gathering around the flames and pointing themselves at it. Coal sizzled and steam rose up as they all began to piss on what was left of the foxes’ sacred fire.

It took only half a minute to extinguish the flames, leaving behind nothing but wet charcoal. All of the kitsune were sobbing as the men grinned at each other and high fived, reveling in what they’d just done. “There you go, foxies,” said the first man as he walked back to the blonde fox and began force feeding her his cock, which still had a bit of urine dribbling from its tip. “We saved you from the big scary fire. You’re welcome.” She sobbed brokenly as he happily throatfucked her.

None of the soldiers could resist the sight of the miserable, wailing women, and soon all pretense of searching the building for stragglers was gone and it was just another orgy. “Hey, Rich Bitch,” said one of them when he noticed Jessica there. She winced at the familiar name; it was what Master Levi had engraved on her collar. “Go check out the rest of the place for us while we, uh, interrogate these sluts for more info.” He laughed.

Jessica nodded and padded deeper into the building, not at all sad to be getting away from that scene. She could still hear the laughter and crying echoing as she poked her head into doors. The structure wasn’t a very large one, and she saw no sign of anyone. It looked like everyone had already been gathered in or around the main area, probably so they could watch the priestess who was defending them.

She was about to head back when she saw the girl.

She was hiding under a bed in one of the smaller rooms, scrunched up into a tiny ball right next to the wall. Jessica couldn’t even see most of her, only her eyes, bright green and terrified, and a hint of white furred ears. Their gazes met, and she heard the young woman let out a single, very quiet whimper. For a long moment, both of them stayed frozen there.

Jessica knew exactly what she should do: run back and report this. She had no illusions that Master Levi would reward her for her discovery, but he would be less likely to find cause to punish her, and that amounted to much the same thing in her life. And if the girl was discovered by someone else and they somehow thought that Jessica had been concealing her… she shivered with terror at the idea. No, no, she wanted no chance of that. Going back was the right decision. But she didn’t. She remained where she was, still holding the girl’s gaze.

This was foolish. She didn’t know this girl. Didn’t know her name, her face, nothing. She was just a pair of scared eyes in the dark. And one of hundreds of kitsune here. What did she matter? What mattered was keeping Master Levi happy. For months she’d done everything he wanted without complaint or hesitation, devoting herself into being an obedient pet, and it was **working**. He was never going to treat her with anything like affection, but his anger had dimmed. She was just another fucktoy to him, another set of holes to enjoy when the mood struck him. He didn’t go out of his way to break her fingers anymore, didn’t order Celeste to suggest new and disgusting things to feed her. Little by little, he was forgetting about the Jessica Wilmingshire who had humiliated him, and seeing only harmless, fuckable Rich Bitch when he looked at her. And all of that hard work would be wasted if he thought she’d tried to defy him. She needed to go back, and she needed to go back right now.

But she didn’t.

Jessica knew that she wasn’t a good person. She was selfish, vain, and rather stupid. No one who knew her story would have the slightest sympathy for the arrogant, empty headed rich girl who would still be a happy slave owner if fate hadn’t kicked her upside the head. She could selflessly rescue a hundred people, and at the end of the day when everything was measured up, she’d still be an evil cunt who deserved to be hated and treated like trash.

But…this wasn’t about her. It wasn’t about scoring points or making up for her past or becoming a good person. It was about this nameless, faceless, terrified girl hiding in the dark, who almost certainly didn’t deserve anything that awaited her out there. And Jessica didn’t want to be the one to expose her to it.

The sound of boots coming down the hallway and men’s voices interrupted their frozen moment. From the sound of it, one of the higher ups had noticed them slacking off, and put them back on the search. Thank God. Now it was out of Jessica’s hands. They’d come searching in here, find the girl, and that would be the end of it. It wouldn’t be her fault. Even if she wanted to save this white furred stranger, there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

Except that wasn’t true. There was something she could do about it. A very stupid thing that might not even work. The footsteps were drawing closer; if she was going to act, she had only seconds left. She should just go. She should just go and forget all about this, and let the nameless young woman become yet another sobbing fucktoy…

Less than a minute later, she heard one of the men laugh from the doorway. “Hey, come check this shit out!” Jessica resisted the urge to tense up and remained where she was: curled up on the bed in her human form, eyes closed as she pretended to sleep. The deception was over a few seconds later when someone slapped her hard across the face. It didn’t require any acting to squeal in pain and fear as she “woke up”, or to look like she was terrified of what was about to happen.

“Lazy fucking bitch,” someone said, sounding more pleased than annoyed, and then he was sitting on her chest, his weight making it difficult to breathe. The soldier slapped her a few more times with his hand, then started doing it with his stiff cock instead, the shaft already smeared with blood and pussy juice. There were two other men with him, and they both looked as amused as he was about what they’d found. “We go give you an order, and you think you can just ignore us and go take a nap? And pretend like you’re a goddamn human being instead of a furry fucktoy like all the other sluts here?”

Jessica looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears. “Please,” she whispered. “Please doh-guuhk!” Her plea was muted by his cock sinking down her throat, just as she’d expected. Before his wet balls slapped against her chin, another man had already pulled her legs apart so he could start stuffing his own prick into her dry pussy. The bed springs creaked as they both set to raping her.

As one of Master Levi’s pets, she had always been off limits to his men. The only time he let someone else fuck one of this pets was when they didn’t behave themselves and broke a rule. When that happened, anyone was allowed to help punish the offender. Akemi had been gangraped numerous times for her frequent rebellions. Even Celeste had fallen victim before, as a consequence of her attempts to find loopholes in the web of rules their owner had wrapped her in. But not Jessica. Her one and only act of disobedience was her failed attempt to release the fae from service on their first night. Since then, she had been perfectly well behaved, leaving his followers no opportunity to rape her. Until now. It didn’t matter to these men that there were literally hundreds of captive women around for them to choose from. They weren’t going to miss their chance to rape the normally untouchable Jessica Wilmingshire.

“Tell you what, Rich Bitch,” said the third man as he casually slid his hard dick across her smooth stomach. “You do a good job pleasing us, a real bang up balls draining slut fest, and we won’t go tattling to the commander.”

He was lying. Even if they weren’t as scared of Master Levi’s wrath as she was, they had no intention of offering her mercy, not even mercy purchased with her own body. They just wanted to get the most out of her while they had the opportunity. But that didn’t matter. At this point, there was no chance of stopping them from getting her into trouble. Her only hope was to convince them not to make up stories of talking back or attempted escape to try and make Master Levi **really** punish her. So Jessica nodded and gently wrapped her fingers around his shaft to begin lightly stroking it.

These men were going to rape her. They were going to humiliate her. They were going to force her to do all manner of shameful and disgusting things in the hope of salvation, a hope that everyone involved already knew was false. And when they were finished wringing as much amusement out of her as possible, they’d hand her back to Master Levi so that her true punishment could begin. The next few days of her life were going to be as miserable as any kitsune’s. But that wasn’t the only consequence of what she’d done.

They were so eager to take advantage of her that none of them thought to check under the bed that they raped her on.


	7. Faith

Emi rubbed her eyes and considered the merits of brewing a fresh pot of coffee. On the one hand, it was already frightfully late, and she knew full well how damaging sleep deprivation could be. Caffeine at this hour would guarantee that she’d be awake until well after sunrise, and probably leave her feeling miserable and cranky for the next week.

On the other hand, all this paperwork wasn’t going to fill itself out. Vaccination records, pharmaceutical requests, equipment requisitions, scheduling appointments and follow ups... sometimes it felt like being a doctor was 90% paperwork. The rest of the time it felt more like 95%. And as much as she’d love to say it could just wait until tomorrow, they were entering peak flu season, which was always the busiest time of the year for her and the other physicians. Influenza didn’t care about how many centuries you’d lived or how quickly your body could repair its wounds. Emi was going to be up to her eyeballs in work soon, and a single day’s delay could potentially mean the death of an “immortal” kitsune.

The dark haired woman sighed and got up to head to the kitchen.

Hanabi’s door was still shut tight. Over the last few days, Emi had frequently heard weeping from the other side of the door, but for now the girl was silent. With any luck, she was getting some sleep, and not her usual kind that came with nightmares that made her scream and cry out. The poor thing still hadn’t gotten anything like a proper rest since she’d been found.

Emi busied herself in the kitchen, and soon the coffee pot was bubbling away. It was an especially cold night in the clinic, and she found herself looking forward to the warmth of the coffee almost as much as the caffeine. The doctor sat at the table while she waited and resisted the urge to rest her head on it. If she did that now, she wouldn’t be getting back up. She settled for breathing in deeply instead, enjoying the rich scent filling the room.

And beneath it, the smell of smoke.

It was faint, faint enough that even her sensitive nose wouldn’t have picked it up if she hadn’t been focused on it. But it was undeniably there, and Emi could think of no good reason and far too many bad ones to be smelling smoke at this hour. Adrenaline surged inside her, temporarily wiping away her tiredness, and she bolted up from the table. If someone was hurt out there, they were going to need her help.

She didn’t smell the humans until it was too late. There was a small thud, and then the clinic’s front door shattered into splinters. Boots pounded the floor as strangers rushed into the building, and before Emi had finished reeling from the sudden loud explosion, four humans dressed all in black were swarming into the kitchen. She stared wide-eyed at them, unable to believe what she was seeing. They were wearing dark military gear, and carrying large, deadly looking rifles. All four guns were trained on her and she stared at them like a deer in headlights, expecting to be shot and killed at any moment.

“Strip, bitch!” one of them barked. She wasn’t even certain which one of them said it. The four men wore goggles and masks that completely obscured their faces and made them feel more like weapons than people.

“I…” Emi swallowed hard. “I don’t know what’s going on here,” she said shakily, trying to instill a sense of calm professionalism into her words, “but I am a doctor. Do you under-” She screamed as one of the guns barked and hot pain exploded in her left leg, just below the knee. She collapsed to the floor, clutching at the bullet wound as hot blood ran down her shins. A small analytical part of her couldn’t keep from studying the injury like she was just examining a patient: the bullet had missed the bone and gone all the way through, which was a good sign. Given rest and care, it could heal within a few days and without any complications.

But right now it **hurt** , more than anything she’d ever experienced, and that was all the rest of her cared about. She wailed in agony, and then jerked and gasped as one of her assailants slammed a heavy boot against her bullet wound. It hurt so much that she stopped screaming entirely, her vocal cords unable to produce any sound. Nothing more than a squeak came out of her wide open mouth. “I said **strip, bitch**!” snarled the man who had kicked her.

Emi flinched away from the rage in his voice. Under different circumstances, she might have been amused by the situation. These men had broken into her clinic and shot her, and yet somehow **he** was angry with **her** , just because she hadn’t obeyed his command quickly enough. But right now, she felt nothing but terror, and her hands quickly fumbled at her clothing. The shirt was easy enough to remove, though she tore off several buttons in her haste, but the pants were more difficult thanks to her leg. She tried to ease them off slowly to minimize the pain, but when one of the men brandished his rifle at her, she whimpered and quickly pulled them off with a choked scream.

Once she was down to just her foxskin underclothes, another of the men stepped forward. Emi froze when she saw the knife in his hand, but his goal wasn’t to cut her. He did leave a few bloody lines across her torso, but it was only thanks to his carelessness in cutting the foxskin off of her. And then it was gone, and the doctor was alone, naked, and hobbled, surrounded by four violent intruders. The men all visibly relaxed after her foxskin was taken from her, as though she was a dangerous wild animal that had just been muzzled. Another reaction that would have been ridiculous in any other context. Like most kitsune, she slipped into her natural form on occasion to enjoy its grace and freedom, but it was hardly something she did regularly. It wasn’t exactly conducive to her job, after all. And in all her life, the closest she’d ever come to any kind of combat training with it was playing tag out in the woods as a child.

“God, you’ve almost got to admire the arrogance of this uppity cunt,” one of the men behind her said. “An animal calling itself a doctor!” He slapped the back of her head, and Emi couldn’t help making a small pained sound. “And at best, you dumb slut, you’d be a fucking veterinarian!”

The men laughed. “She’s a cute little fucktoy though, isn’t she?” said another man. “Bet she’ll be reallllll good at playing Doctor with some training.”

“Well, if you fuckers aren’t gonna make the first move,” said a third, fumbling with his zipper, “then I’ll be the one to start giving her her physical.” His cock popped out of his pants, hard and throbbing. Emi looked at it with dismay. Some part of her had known this was coming before they’d even ordered her to take her clothes off. Hanabi wasn’t the first kitsune in the village to gain a harsh lesson about ignoring the dangers of the outside world. Emi had treated several women over the years, enough to become familiar with the cruel interests of human men, especially ones like these. But knowing rationally that this would happen didn’t make the reality of it any easier.

He grabbed hold of both her ears and yanked her up onto her knees, then pulled her towards his crotch, rubbing her face against his stiff erection. “Say ‘Ahhh’,” he told her cheerfully.

When she didn’t immediately obey, one of his comrades kicked her injury again, making her yelp. “If you really are a smart mutt,” said the man who’d kicked her, “you’ll learn some obedience fast. Dumb bitches and smart ones both get trained, slut, but it’s up to you how much of it is just sex and good times…” He reared back his foot and kicked her yet again, hard enough of this time that she felt something in her leg crack. “And how much of it is beating some sense into you.”

Her heart sank with the knowledge that he was absolutely right. They were going to hurt and rape her, and there was nothing she could do to stop them right now. Resistance would only mean more pain, and it was obvious that these men were the type to enjoy it. Every ounce of dignity and self-respect inside of her said that she should stand strong and not give them what they wanted, but cold logic and the instinct for self-preservation said otherwise. The more she was injured, the less able she’d be to help herself and others. The distant sounds she heard outside that came in from the broken door made it all too clear that what was happening to her was not an isolated incident. For now, she had to swallow her pride.

Emi opened her mouth wide. “Ahh-guh gug guh!” The soldier immediately thrust his hard-on between her lips, making her gag as it struck the back of her throat. For a moment she clung to the hope that it was just enthusiasm on his part, but when his second and third thrusts went equally deep, she had no choice but to accept that his goal wasn’t a blowjob. His hands continued to grip her ears, cruelly twisting and tugging on them as he fought to get into her throat.

“I feel a single tooth,” he warned, “and we’ll be playing dentist instead, yeah?” She hadn’t even considered trying to bite him, but she quickly curled her lips to cover her teeth, anxious not to accidentally incur his wrath. His cockhead continued to bounce off of the entrance to her throat, relentlessly trying to work its way into the tight passage. Both of them knew it was only a matter of time before he succeeded. Her tongue darted around, trying to find a position where it didn’t unwillingly slide against his shaft on each stroke in and out, but he was too big.

While he violated her mouth, two of his companions broke away to ransack the clinic for anything valuable. Emi could hear them laughing as they carelessly smashed up anything that didn’t interest them. “You fuckers find any good shit, don’t you dare hog it!” yelled her rapist. Emi’s blood ran cold as she remembered Hanabi sleeping nearby. After everything that poor girl had already suffered, she didn’t deserve something like this. She silently prayed to Inari that the white haired fox girl had been woken by the noise and already fled somewhere safe.

All thoughts of anyone else vanished when the intruder finally succeeded in penetrating her throat. Emi gagged and instinctively tried to pull her head back, but all she did was make her trapped ears hurt. “Oh yeah!” the man hooted as he pressed his advantage, pushing in ever deeper now that the main barrier of entry had been defeated. “We got a tight little throat in here, but it knows what it’s for! Take my cock, slut! Swallow it all the way down this sexy throat of yours.” Emi’s eyes crossed as she helplessly watched the shaft disappear further into her. Her gag reflex was still being set off, but her chokes and gurgles as he sank into her only seemed to encourage him.

When he was all the way in, her face mashed against his unwashed pubic hairs, he finally let go of her ears. “Mind giving me a hand?” he said as he started fishing through his pockets. Before Emi could even think about backing away, a boot pressed down on the back of her head, grinding her even hard against her rapist’s crotch. “Thanks man! And as for you slut, stop lazing around and get that tongue on my balls.” The very idea made her nauseous, but she obeyed, sticking out her tongue to blindly quest for his scrotum. When she found it, she wished she hadn’t - it was covered in little hairs, and tasted even worse than his cock.

The man behind Emi put his thumbs on her eyelids and pulled, forcing her to look up at the one in her throat. “Start licking that nutsack, bitch,” he growled. “I catch you stopping, and we’ll find out whether you foxes can survive a good skullfucking.” His boot pressed even harder, making her head pound as it was compressed.

She fearfully obeyed, slathering the wrinkled hairy balls in spit as she watched her rapist light up a cigarette. He puffed on it a few times and sighed contentedly. “A good smoke and a warm fleshlight. What more could a man ask for?” Bits of ash drifted down to land unpleasantly on her upturned face.

  
“I could ask for you to hurry the fuck up,” said the other. “Didn’t you ever learn how to share your toys?”

“Sorry, sorry,” he said lightly, and took another long drag of his cigarette. “Here, let me finish up so you can take a turn.” Emi was too distracted to think much of it when he lowered the cigarette. She had her aching head to think about, and her stuffed throat, and her injured leg. Not to mention the task she’d been given, which she performed dutifully, lapping at the foul tasting scrotum.

Her priorities changed when he pressed the cigarette against her forehead.

Emi screamed in shocked agony as he mercilessly ground the butt out on her skin.”Ohhhhhh, fuck yeah,” the intruder moaned happily. “We got a real good screamer here. She’s wringing my fucking dick out like she was born for it.” He was already lighting up a fresh cigarette. “One or two more like that and it’ll be all over.”

“Pass me one too,” the other man requested. “Stupid bitch forgot to keep licking you.” Emi hurriedly resumed tonguing her rapist’s balls, but she was too late. “On three, yeah? One… two… three!” The two cigarettes were put out on her at the same time, right on the soft, sensitive inside of both her fox ears. The dark haired woman howled at the twin bursting fiery pains, and felt the cock buried inside her throat pulse. By the time they were done using her ears as ashtrays, it was already spitting its load down into her stomach.

“Fuck me,” its owner breathed as he emptied himself inside her. “I needed that! Aww, you lucky slut, that’s two weeks worth of jizz I had saved up, and you get to drink the entire thing. Before long, you’ll be drooling at the thought of a big feast like this. Now suck out the last few drops.” The humiliated fox obeyed, tightening her lips around him as he softened and sucking hard. The brunt of his cum had gone down her throat without ever having to taste it, but the dregs spurted out onto her tongue, sticky and bitter. She nearly threw up at the thought of all the slime sitting in her stomach.

Emi panted for breath when his cock finally popped free of her lips, but she was given no time to rest or process the ordeal she’d just been through. The other man was dragging her over to the table and pushing her onto her back on it, her legs hanging off. He gripped his cock in one hand, just as thick and fearsome as his companion’s had been, and slapped it against her pubic mound. “Meet your new gynecologist, bitch. Open up so he can give you a thorough examination.”

The knowledge of her imminent rape made the kitsune quiver in fear, but they weren’t finished degrading her. The other man joined her up on the table, and to her horror, sat himself down right on her face, his soft and slimy cock resting on her collarbone and his spit slick scrotum on her lips. “I didn’t say you were done with my balls, slut,” he told her. “Pop those bad boys in your mouth and get sucking.” She reluctantly opened her mouth and swallowed up the wrinkled lumps.

She couldn’t see anything now but the man’s awful smelling ass crack, but the other man reminded her of his presence by grabbing hold of her leg and digging his nails into the bullet wound. It had already begun to heal, but it was still sensitive and tender to the touch, and she screamed at the unexpected biting pain. Even his dull fingernails felt like sharp knives being driven into her flesh. “Don’t keep me waiting, bitch,” he growled. “And wrap these goddamn legs around me. I ain’t into fucking dead fish.”

Emi’s face was hot with shame as she used her fingers to spread her slit for him, and slowly encircled him with her legs, trying not to scream as her wound pressed against him. He wasted no time cramming his cock into her, punching through her hymen without hesitation. The dark haired fox groaned around her mouthful of flesh as he drove into her dry channel, tearing her insides in his haste to fuck her. His cockhead felt as thick as a fist as it plunged ruthlessly deeper, forcing her pussy to give way to it. “She tight, man?” asked the one sitting on her face.

“Nope,” said the one impaling her, his voice a little strained. “Loose as your mother’s asshole. You guys shouldn’t even bother sticking it in this slack twat she’s got; I’ll take one for the team and dump all my loads in here while you enjoy her other holes.” Her walls clung involuntarily to him as he pulled back, retreating back through the tunnel he’d dug out until only the head remained, cushioned by her spread pussy lips. Then he rammed back in even harder than before. “What did I just tell you, bitch?” He pinched her clit, brutally crushing the little nubbin with his fingers. “No dead fish!” She quickly began humping him back, using her legs as leverage to meet his violent thrusts.

His companion laughed. “That good, huh? I’ll have to try it soon, if I can convince myself to stay away from this slutty mouth of hers long enough.” She was dismayed to feel his cock twitch as it began to revive. “Feel that, you sexy little fucktoy? Sucked my balls right back to life.” He rose up a little, letting his scrotum pop out of her mouth. “Now pucker those lips and give my nutsack a little kiss goodbye. Don’t worry, you’ll be reunited soon enough.”

Emi obeyed, the twisted sense of intimacy making the kiss feel even more obscene than the licking and sucking she’d been doing. To her absolute disgust, he shifted to position his asshole right over her lips instead. “And now give your new lover a **deep** kiss hello while I give you a breast exam.” Part of her rebelled at the thought of doing something so filthy and demeaning, but the rest of her was still acutely aware of the cigarette burns and her injured leg. The horrible, unfair, and simple truth was that if he wanted her to perform anallingus on him, she was going to. The only real question was how much pain they’d have to inflict to convince her, and she had no doubt that they would delight in the opportunity.

So while the man crushed her breasts beneath his palms and rubbed them vigorously against his stiffening cock, and his comrade raped her pussy like he was drilling a hole through her, Emi begrudgingly explored the inside of his rectum with her tongue. It tasted even worse than it smelled, and through her medical background she knew all too many ways she could get sick from doing something so unhygienic, but her opinion didn’t mean much anymore.

“Looks like we got a quick learner over here!” commented a new voice. The other two had returned. “I told you guys before: these foxes are all filthy sluts deep down. She loves being treated like this, don’t you baby?” Not wanting to agree, but not wanting to make them angry either, Emi settled for making a noncommittal muffled sound that they could interpret how they liked. “See? This is the probably the happiest fucking day of her life.” Someone grabbed her right hand, pulling it away from her pussy and rubbing the palm against something hot and hard. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what it was. “Juice me up, baby. Get me good and ready to pound those tails right off you.” She closed her hand around his shaft and began slowly pumping her fist up and down, wary of going too far and hurting him. She must have been doing something right, because he let out a satisfied sigh. “Yeah, that’s the spirit. Just imagine how much you’re gonna love this bad boy when he starts rooting around inside you.”

Her other hand was pulled too, and soon she was being forced to service all four of the men. Emi couldn’t stop herself from imagining how she must look to them right now. They couldn’t see her face, didn’t even know her name… she was just an anonymous sex toy to them. A living blowup doll with fluffy tails, meekly pleasing their dicks. The idea made her heart ache with pent up frustration, and she longed to fight back, fantasized about smashing their faces in and beating them so badly that they never dared treat a woman like this again. But she couldn’t. She was helpless right now, and that made hot tears stream down her face as she performed for them. She tongued the asshole of the man using her chest, humped the man violating her pussy, and softly stroked the other two while they waited for their own chance to properly rape her.

“Find anything?” asked the one sitting on her head. Emi tensed. It didn’t sound like they’d discovered Hanabi, but she couldn’t be sure yet.

“Oh yeah, she’s got the good shit!” said one of the men receiving a handjob. “Morphine, Oxycontin, bunch of uppers…” The doctor relaxed a little as he continued bragging about the drugs they’d found. “Once things calm down, we can have ourselves a genuine fucking party!”

The man raping her pussy grunted. “Only one drug a furry fox cunt like this needs, and I’ve got her prescription right here … 200 CCs of hot cum, stat… to be administered… as often as fucking possible…” His rhythm became uneven as he continued thrusting even as his cock spat his semen towards her fertile womb. “Yeah… you feel all that thick spunk filling you up, bitch…? Gonna put a baby in this tight twat…” Emi gagged again, and it had nothing to do with the foul acts her mouth and tongue were being forced into. The idea of one of these men impregnating her made her want to scrub her insides out with bleach.

“Guess I should give you fuckers a turn too,” said the man on her face reluctantly. He rose up onto his knees, crouching over the kitsune with his cock in hand, pointed directly at her mouth as he pumped it furiously. “Open wide, slut!” he barked, panting. “And don’t swallow until I say so! Gonna make sure you savor every creamy drop of my jizz this time!” Emi obeyed just in time to catch the first spurt of his load onto her tongue. He continued to unload into her mouth, coating her tongue and the insides of her cheeks with warm sticky slime. What she really wanted was to spit it out - and then spend the next thousand years brushing her teeth - but she also would’ve swallowed it down without hesitation if that had been an option, so eager she was to escape the bitter awful taste of it. But she could do neither without the permission of the very man who’d violated her.

“Sweet and yummy, right?” he asked with a grin. When she didn’t answer, he reached down and twisted one of her nipples, making her shudder and flinch. “I asked you a question, slut. Is my dick snot your new favorite snack?” She quickly nodded. “Thought so.” He stuck his hand out in in front of her mouth. “But if I keep feeding you so much, you’re gonna become a spoiled little fucktoy, aren’t you? Spit it out.”

The humiliating comment rankled, but she wasn’t going to argue. She carefully spat onto his gloved palm several times, determined to get rid of as much of the bitter scum as possible.

“Good girl,” he said approvingly, and then winked at her. “So good that I just changed my mind. Eat up, slut; you’ve earned it.”

Emi looked down at the glistening, goopy mix of sperm and saliva on his glove. She’d thought that him cumming into her mouth was disgusting, but at least she didn’t have to be an active participant outside of keeping her mouth open. Even when she’d eaten out his ass, at least she didn’t have to look at what she was doing. Sticking out her tongue and slowly lapping up the obscene mix of bodily fluids, taking it back into her mouth so that she could swallow it down, was the most revolting thing she’d done all night.

“That’s it,” he encouraged. “Lick up that juicy cum treat.”

“Alright, alright…,” said one of the others when she was finished. “Now back off and give the poor girl the chance to enjoy some fresh meat. Hey, you thinking ass, cunt, or mouth?”

The fourth man snorted. “Is that a fucking joke? It’s gonna be nothing but sloppy seconds around here for weeks. I ain’t gonna miss my last chance for a fresh hole.”

The other shrugged. “Works for me. Me and my tough little swimmers are gonna be the first one to knock one of these furry cum dumps up.” He pulled Emi off of the table and into a standing position facing him, then scrunched his nose. “Goddamn, you already reek of cum. You foxes never figure out hygiene?”

The insult shouldn’t have stung as much as it did. But being in this filthy state was already bad enough. To be mocked for it, treated like her utter defilement was somehow her own fault, was too much, and fat tears began rolling down the doctor’s cheeks. Her shame tripled when all four men laughed at her, taking such obvious pleasure from her humiliation. “Awww, don’t be sad, baby,” he said with mock sympathy. “I’ve got a nice hard cock here for you to enjoy. Gimme a hand, man.”

His hands grabbed ass cheeks and lifted her up into the air, and at the same time another pair of hands took hold of her thighs, forcing her legs to spread wide apart. “Just think of it as a long, fat rectal thermometer,” murmured the man behind her as the two of them lined her up with their waiting cocks. “One that’s gonna give you a big, warm cum enema when it’s done.” His teeth nipped at her ear, making her flinch. “You’re gonna look so cute with my jizz leaking out your asshole, you know that? Gonna be so sexy I’ll probably be ready for round two before the first drop finishes running down your legs.”

Emi had engaged in anal sex before, even enjoyed the experience. But an intimate joining of bodies with a careful and patient lover was a far cry from being raped by a total stranger. Her rectal passage was dry and narrow and there was no mantra in the world that could persuade her to unclench as the head of his cock began to poke and prod at her anal ring. “That’s the spirit,” he told her, not at all bothered by his inability to get in. “Make me work for it. Make me break this tight butt wide open.”

In front of her, the man violating her pussy was having a much easier time penetrating her, her passage already stretched out and lubricated with cum. Easier for him didn’t mean easier for her, though; her insides were still tender and bruised from her previous rape, and a burning ache accompanied his cock as it pushed into her. “Damn, I love this soft silky twat she’s got. If I didn’t just watch you fucking her raw, I wouldn’t even be able to tell she was used goods!” He looked her right in the eyes. “You especially fuckable, baby,” he asked, “or do all you fox sluts feel this good?” She turned her head to break off the eye contact, but he grabbed her chin with one hand and wrenched it back, forcing her to meet his gaze. His spittle struck her cheek. “That wasn’t a rhetorical question,” he said, with an edge to his voice. “Are you a special little fox fuck who deserves to get plowed 24/7? Or is it just that your entire pathetic subhuman race is nothing but a bunch of fuzzy sex toys?”

“I… I’m a special little fox fuck who deserves to get plowed 24/7,” the doctor said slowly. She didn’t feel special or sexy; in fact, right now she felt lower and filthier than rotting garbage. But his mockery of her offered a faint sliver of hope. If these four men truly thought she was above average, they might choose to keep violating her over other women. After centuries spent working to keep the village - her family - happy and healthy, it broke her heart to admit it, but this was the most she could do to help them right now.

He smirked at her. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He gestured vaguely towards her office. “All this doctor stuff, it’s just a bunch of make-believe bullshit, right? A stupid animal playing dress up and pretending it’s a human. This - “ He thrust into her sharply, making her gasp - “ is what you’re for. What you want. What you’re good at. Being a cocksleeve. A painslut.” He spat on her again, this time directly into her right eye, making her blink furiously. “A toilet. This is all you’ve ever been, and all you’ll ever be. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes,” Emi agreed, her voice trembling. Most of her knew that he was just spouting nonsense to humiliate her and help get himself off, and that agreeing meant nothing, just a necessary lie to avoid incurring his anger. Most of her knew that.

  
Her flicker of self hatred was interrupted by a deep tearing pain as her anal ring finally gave up the fight and her other rapist’s cock wedged itself into her rectum. “You feel what you do to me, fox?” he asked as he strained to force more of himself into her. “Got me hard as a fucking steel bar.” He pulled back just slightly, then slammed his hips forward, successfully burying another couple inches into her narrow tunnel. “Couldn’t have made it a millimeter into this tight shithole if you weren’t such a sexy fuckdoll.” His hands came away from her thighs, leaving her supported only by the two cocks inside her. As gravity caused her to sink lower onto him, he reached around her to grop her chest, roughly kneading her soft mammaries like dough with his callused fingers.

Emi whined in pain as he continued working himself deeper into her with every thrust. She’d seen how bad it was too be raped by a single cock, and she’d assumed - naively - that two would be twice as awful. It was far worse than that. Her insides were already being mercilessly reshaped and forced aside by the fat prick jackhammering her pussy. They had no give left to offer, yet the decision wasn’t up to them. As the second man forced his member into her guts, the dark haired woman felt like she was about to be split in two. The thin membrane separating the two invaders was being attacked from both sides now, and it felt like only a matter of time before something tore. Already she felt a warm trickle of blood from out her anus, and her pussy couldn’t be far behind.

So utterly exhausted that she couldn’t even cry, Emi’s body slumped, resting against the man in front of her. She remained like that, half senseless and as limp as a dishrag, her head lying on his shoulder, as they enjoyed her body. The pain of their twin invasions melted together until it felt like a single massive churning piston, pulverizing her from the inside out. If her unresponsive and nearly unconscious state bothered her two rapists, they didn’t show it. She was just a fleshlight to them, just a pair of warm holes that they could shoot their cum into.

The one raping her pussy came first, burying himself as deeply inside her as he could the moment his cock began to pulse. She felt his load spatter against her cervix, and knew that some of it would make it deeper. Right now there were literally millions of sperm in a prime position to seek out and fertilize her eggs. Only a single one of them had to succeed... when the man in her asshole began to ejaculate less than a minute later, it brought no such horrifying predictions to her mind, but the sensation of his hot, viscous, gooey cum painting her guts made up for it. Emi couldn't imagine ever feeling clean again. No matter how long she lived, she was certain that she’d never be able to so much as move her bowels without being reminded of this terrible, humiliating experience.

The two men slid out of her and carelessly let her collapse to the floor. The dark haired woman instinctively curled up into a fetal position, her insides still aching. She silently prayed to Inari that they would give her a short rest. She knew that a proper rest was too much to hope for, and a full night’s sleep now an unattainable luxury, but if she could just have a few minutes. Just a few short minutes where she wasn’t being looked down on and abused, while their dicks recovered.

A sharp kick to her front made Emi groan and roll over onto her back. For a second she stared dully up at the ceiling, and then her vision was blocked by one of them sitting on her face again. “Told you you wouldn’t be missing my balls for long, slut,” he said cheerfully as he used a couple fingers to cram his scrotum past her lips. “Figured I’d let you lovebirds share some more passionate open mouth kisses before you get busy swallowing my cock again.”

“Hey, stop hogging her throat,” complained of the others. “I’ve been needing to piss for hours now.”

“Yeah yeah, you’ll get your turn. Besides, she’s got two other holes. Figure something out.”

The other three men were already arguing about who would get to rape her next and where when Emi started sucking on the depressingly familiar wrinkled lumps filling her mouth. They had to let her rest eventually, probably, maybe… but not yet. For now, the doctor knew her ordeal was far from over, and her long night only just beginning.

**********

Hanabi had to force herself to breathe as she ran up the hill, her body so tense with fear that she was nearly about to pass out. When she’d first seen the soldiers, she’d thought she was in the middle of another nightmare. There had been so many just like this, where Levi stormed into the village like an angry god to take back his toy. Where men that she’d carelessly played pranks on came back to get revenge on the fox slut who’d thought she was better than them. But then, as she was praying that she would wake up before the dream reached the inevitable, the screams had begun, and she’d realized that it was all so much worse than she’d thought.

She’d been up on the roof of the clinic when the siege started, finishing the last of the udon her father had brought. For the last few days, she’d found some comfort in going up there when she knew that no one would be visiting her or walking the streets outside. To be somewhere with fresh air and no walls to pen her in, where no one could see her and anyone who might hate her or want to hurt her wouldn’t know to look, was… nice. Being up on the roof didn’t make her feel good or safe like she’d used to feel all the time, but she felt better than when she was huddled in bed.

From her vantage point, she’d watched the uniformed men sweep into the village like a swarm of locusts. A pocket would break off every time they reached a new home, and then either its occupants would be dragged out a minute later to be raped on the street, or the men would remain inside as Hanabi heard new screams join the chorus. Even inanimate objects weren’t spared: statues and other public decorations were torn down, hanging lanterns smashed, buildings torched. There wasn’t much sense of organization to it, more a raw need for violence that they expressed at every opportunity. A week ago, their behavior would have seemed alien and incomprehensible to the white haired girl, but she understood it now. They were hungry. All of them, singly or in groups, were looking for foxes to claim as their own, and taking their impatience out on anything nearby.

She’d almost been seen and caught up there. She was on a side of the roof that was hidden from the main road that they were traveling down, but she was far from invisible. She’d known right away that it wasn’t safe to stay up there, but for long minutes, she’d been too terrified to move. Moving meant she might make noise or catch their eye, and part of her couldn’t bear to risk it, even knowing that staying still would guarantee that same fate. It was the sight of the foxes with the soldiers that had snapped her out of her paralysis. They looked like kitsune, but smelled all wrong, and carried a sense of lust and anger even stronger than the humans.

So she’d given in to prey animal instincts and fled. She had years of experience playing hide and seek in the village as a child, and even more experience in sneaking out to the woods without her parents or any of the guards noticing. Hanabi used every trick she remembered, every blind spot between buildings, every patch of undergrowth large enough to conceal her, every pool of shadows created by the remaining lanterns, to make her way to her destination. She knew rationally that the safest place to go was outside the village, but she couldn’t bring herself to even try, not after Levi and Celeste. The forest would never be a place of safety for her again. She went for the temple instead. If there was anywhere in the village that could survive the onslaught, that would be it.

Hanabi reached the top of the hill with the human vanguard just moments behind her. She wasn’t the only kitsune to seek sanctuary there, and the screams of those who’d been just a bit slower or less careful than her drifted up. Megumi was sitting cross-legged out by the entrance, her wheat blonde hair down around her shoulders and wearing her traditional shrine maiden garb. A shimmering red dome of light surrounded the stone building, and for a second the white haired girl was certain that the barrier would keep her out, that she would be trapped outside between the wall and the horde, but she passed through the light as though it had no substance at all.

“You’re just in time for the party,” said the priestess, her eyes closed. Her tone was sardonic, but there was nothing hateful in it, only amusement. “If I’d known that a military invasion was all I needed to raise attendance around here, I would have sent out invitations centuries ago.” A gunshot rang out, and she flinched slightly. Not nearly so hard as Hanabi, who looked around and whimpered when she saw the humans surrounding the building. A few more fired shots, but they had as little effect as the first, bullets ricocheting harmlessly off the foxfire wall.

Hanabi had always liked the priestess and her easygoing attitude, but she was in no mood for banter right now. “How long can that barrier hold?” she asked fearfully, praying that the answer would be days, or weeks, or forever.

“I can only keep it going for a few hours, I’m afraid,” said Megumi cheerfully, as though she was talking about the weather tomorrow. “Then all those little hooligans are going to come rushing in, and well, I expect I’ll be pretty sore in the morning if I’m still alive to greet it.”

“But then, then why are you just…!” The white haired girl didn’t understand how the woman could seem so unconcerned about the atrocities that were happening all around Hanei and would soon include her. “Don’t you **care**?”

Megumi smiled gently. “Oh, my poor wayward kit. Of course I care. And while I’ve known a great deal of strife in my lifetime, my nose would grow a good ten inches if I claimed that I wasn’t absolutely terrified of what’s about to happen. But I also have faith. I’ve done all I can, and now there’s nothing left for me but to trust in Inari and believe that this is all part of the old girl’s plan.” She tilted her head up slightly to face the sky. “And if it isn’t, my Lady,” she said brightly, “you and I are going to have some words when I get up there, ineffable goddess or not.” Her tone was cheerful, but a single tear escaped to run down her cheek, and her hands shook in her lap.

“But… what’s even the point then?” Hanabi asked bitterly. “Why bother with the barrier at all? What does it really matter if it takes them five seconds or five hours to break in?”

“Because five hours of freedom is better than five seconds,” Megumi said calmly. “I’ve seen enough in my life to know that I should treasure every moment of peace in it. If these scoundrels want to monopolize my time, they’ll have to work up a sweat for it.” She laid a finger against the side of her nose and smiled. “And because while they’re focused on cracking this nut, young Saya and Yumiko are getting the kits out of the village. Everyone back there behind me donated their foxfire to help conceal them.”

Loud, uneven bangs filled the air as men began striking the barrier with the butt of their gun. Megumi flinched a little every time, and Hanabi could see bruises beginning to form on her skin, but she remained where she was. “What about the, the door?” the girl asked. “The one I’m not supposed to know about. Could what’s behind it help?” That was the other reason she’d fled to the temple. Kamio still refused to give her even a hint of what it was the village was protecting, but she could tell it was something big. She didn’t know what could be behind it or how it might prove useful, but she couldn’t imagine anything else that might possibly save their home. There was nothing else to pin her hopes on.

“Hmmm,” Megumi mused, “that **is** one of the great philosophical questions. Could what’s back there help? Almost certainly. **Would** it help? That’s a different question entirely. Is it **already** helping? Hard to say, but I think I’d feel a little miffed if the answer was no. There is such a thing as feeling unappreciated.”

“Megumi!”

“Did he really not tell you?” the priestess asked. “I haven’t talked to Kamio about it since before you were born, but that boy used to spend hours arguing that we should throw the door wide open and leave it that way. I think he wanted to go in there and drag them all out kicking and screaming.”  
  
“Drag all **what** out?”

Megumi opened her eyes. There were no pupils or irises to them, only pale orbs, milky and sightless, but there was still warmth in her gaze as she faced Hanabi . “The gods, my dear,” said the blind priestess.

**********

“What do you think?” asked the soldier as he crammed his cock into Kaede’s guts from behind. It wasn’t her asshole’s first rape that morning, or the twentieth, but it was still a tight enough fit that he had to work for it, wrapping two of the dark haired kitsune’s tails in his fists and pulling her onto him as she tried to scream, the attempt stymied by the prick stuffed down her throat. Beneath her, a third man was enjoying her tight cunt. “Who’s the better fucktoy?”

“This one’s a good screamer,” said the man in her throat. His hands crushed her plump tits, mauling them to make her keep howling around his cock. She’d tried to back up off of him when he first started, but a flattened nose had taught her better. Now she kept her head pressed to his crotch, making every inch of his cock warm and happy as it pulsed inside her gullet. “But the daughter’s got a softer twat. Has that fresh just-broken-in feel to it.”

Beside her, Rei was being raped as well. She was sandwiched between two men, the one below filling her ass while the one on top plowed her pussy. Her mouth was just as busy as her mother’s as a kneeling soldier used his hands around her neck to fuck her throat like it was a loose pussy. The younger fox had resisted harder than her mother at first, and still had the injuries to prove it; the tails knotted around her broken arms kept them from healing, and made her squeal with every thrust from any of her three rapists.

“Yeah,” the soldier ass raping Kaede agreed, “but this one definitely has the tighter shithole.” He gave her butt an appreciative smack.

“Only until it’s my turn back there,” joked the one on top of Rei. He was holding her legs back, her ankles on either side of her neck, as he smashed against her. “I’m gonna hollow her out until she gapes, and then her girl here is gonna suck every trace of Mommy’s stinky filthy asshole off of me, aren’t you?” Rei gurgled something unintelligible, and everyone laughed.

The two women were still in their home, though they’d both been dragged bodily from their separate bedrooms and hauled into one of the main rooms. Their house had once been one of the most finely furnished homes in Hanei. Kaede had been fascinated by human culture most of her life, which was what had made her so well suited to taking on the position of mayor in the village. Her duties were less about directing the other kitsune and more about remaining abreast of what was going on in the outside world. She was the one who’d gotten their territory in Shirakami Sanchi declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site nearly thirty years ago, for example. She was also the one responsible for obtaining false identification for any kitsune who wished to venture outside the village in the guise of a human. That interest in humanity included a great appreciation for the arts, and over the years she’d built up a dazzling collection of tapestries, paintings, and sculptures. Some had been created by others in the village, but the majority were works of art brought in from the outside world, including an original Monet commissioned in 1902.

Most of them were unrecognizable by now. The sculptures had been smashed into rubble by bored soldiers waiting their turn to rape the two foxes. The paintings had been similarly desecrated and defiled, the canvasses covered in scribbles and stains where they weren’t just crumpled up like trash. And the tapestries... the only two that hadn’t been reduced to tattered cloth were the two that had been laid down on the floor like mats to cushion the soldiers while they used the women. Both were indelibly soaked with blood, semen, and urine by now, just like their owner.

“I don’t give a fuck how good her other holes are,” complained the man beneath Kaede. “Lazy slut is slacking off with her cunt again. Needs some more motivation.” Both women whimpered at the comment and redoubled their efforts to please their rapists, but their wordless pleas were ignored.

A fire blazed in the hearth, fueled by photographs and scraps of clothing. The two branding irons had been left half buried in it, and were already red hot when a pair of waiting soldiers eagerly pulled them out. “Where should we do this time?” one asked.

“Fry their tits again,” recommended the one beneath Rei. “Nothing gets these cunts moving like some roasted titties.”

Both foxes howled as the sizzling irons sank into their soft flesh, the sounds accompanied by mocking laughter. Their breasts, buttocks, feet and faces had all been popular targets that morning. Any human woman would irreparably burned and scarred from the torture, but they barely had any marks left on them, allowing their sensitive areas to get hurt again and again.

The soldiers kept the branding irons on them until the flesh beneath was charred, then pulled back and picked a fresh spot. “You know how to make this stop, animals,” said one of them.

The first few times, it had been completely involuntary. All of the men had found it hilarious though, and wanted to see it every time they were burned. So Kaede, the closest Hanei had to royalty, a lover of the fine arts, a refined woman of dignity and grace, pissed herself to the amusement of everyone watching, the thin yellow stream soaking the priceless tapestry beneath her. Beside her, Rei debased herself in the same way.

“Quit your whining, you silly bitch,” said the man who’d complained. “It’s your own fault for not being a better fuck, isn’t it?” Kaede quickly nodded her head in agreement as her hips flexed and wriggled to please him.

“I just want to know who’s got the better mouth,” said one of the eight soldiers waiting for his turn to come back around. “I’m gonna have one of them tonguing my asshole while the other swallows my cock, and I can’t decide which way.” Both women grimaced at the knowledge of their impending positions, but didn’t let dread interrupt their service.

“Oh, you definitely want your cock down this little slut’s gullet,” assured the man doing just that to Rei. “Just listen to this.” He thrust in hard and held there, making the young woman gurgle and thrash involuntarily. “See that nice gag reflex? It’s like her throat’s giving me a fucking handy while I’m in it. And before long not a single fox slut for miles is gonna have a gag reflex anymore, so you gotta enjoy ‘em while they last.”

“Hey, don’t sell my cock cleaner here short,” protested the one raping Kaede’s mouth with mock offense. “Go ahead and rest your hand on her throat. Come on. Now feel this.” He reached down and jabbed his dirty fingernails into the site of her latest branding, which was still bright pink with raw, half-healed flesh. He smiled at the man while his victim screeched in agony. “Feel those vibrations? Like I said, she’s a real good screamer.”

“Why not just try it both ways?” suggested another man in line. “Don’t gotta meet up with everyone for hours, and these fucktoys ain’t going nowhere. Even with all fourteen of us sharing them, there’s time for at least a dozen loads each. I already got all mine planned out while I’ve been waiting for you fuckers to hurry up and shoot off.” He began counting off on his fingers. “Me and Chavez are gonna double fuck the daughter’s butt, then I’m gonna deepthroat mom until she pukes and make her girl suck it off while she finishes the job, then it’s time to skewer mom’s nipples together and titfuck her, and **then** -“

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, man,” interrupted the one trying to decide. “It’s not that easy, though. I can’t just do it twice because i was gonna... you know...” He fidgeted.

“Shit into one’s mouth while you piss down the other’s throat?” asked the soldier in Kaede’s ass bluntly. Both women gagged for reasons unrelated to the cocks they were fellating. “Ugh, you’re fucking gross. But whatever, just flip a damn coin or something. And if these two sluts aren’t the best pair of toilets you’ve ever seen, then hell, you aren’t the only one here who needs to take a dump. What do you think, girls? You both eager to become shit eaters?” Both women tried to nod. “See?”

“I don’t give a fuck what you want to do with these dumb bitches,” grumbled the one in Kaede’s pussy. “I just want them to **stop. Slacking. Off**! Stuck up little cunts, the both of them.”

“Do their faces this time,” suggested one of the soldiers as the branding irons were retrieved again. “That way they’ll make nice warm toilet seats when our boy here gets his chance in a minute.” Everyone laughed at that while the heated metal was pressed against their cheeks, and mother and daughter screamed and thrashed and pissed themselves.

**********

Hanabi curled into a ball beneath the bed, trying to make herself as small as possible. The first blow against the barrier had sent her cowered, huddled down, breathing hard. Every subsequent slam as they battered down the barrier felt like the invaders were going to bring the temple down. When they had stopped, however, it was no comfort... that just meant the men were inside. Down the hall, she could hear soldiers abusing the other refugees. In a few minutes, they would find her, and she’d become one more victim. Half of her just wanted to get it over with; the stress of waiting for the inevitable was slowly killing her.

The door to their salvation was just down the hall. Megumi had even taught her the password to open it - specific patterns of foxfire in the right order and timing. Hanabi’s training had progressed far enough that she was reasonably certain she could reproduce those patterns if she tried hard enough. And then she could beseech the gods, perhaps even Inari herself to bring a holy inferno down upon these invaders. It would all be so easy… if she only had her foxskin.

To be so close to their last hope and utterly unable to reach it was a new kind of torture for the white haired fox. Megumi was the only one nearby capable of opening the door, but not without releasing the barrier over the temple first. Even if Hanabi could have tried to teach one of the others, even if they would have listened to **her** of all people, they had already given up all the fire they had. The password, though simple, required several minutes to properly input. Her attempt would be over before she was halfway there, and the most that they would accomplish would be putting up a giant neon sign pointing at the door. If the locks proved as vulnerable as the village wards had and the humans gained access to what was inside, then according to the blind priestess it could spark an even greater tragedy than the one unfolding right now.

Megumi had been too busy maintaining the barrier to go into detail, and she could be frustratingly obtuse with her words even on the best days, but she had passed along the basic idea. Thousands of years ago, something had appeared, something awful enough to terrify even the gods themselves, and the survivors had gone into hiding. They’d created a place where they wouldn’t be found, and it had fallen to Inari and her kitsune to guard its entrance, which led to Hanei being established. Hanabi had no idea how the space behind the hidden door, which couldn’t be more than a closet based on the rooms around it, could contain an entire heavenly sanctuary, but that was only one of about a million questions she had, and Megumi hadn’t been forthcoming about the answers.

It just all seemed so hopeless to the fox girl right now. Her village was being destroyed, her people raped and murdered, and she was certain that it was all somehow her fault. This all had something to do with Levi and his pet monster Celeste, she knew it. She still remembered how effortlessly the woman had torn apart all of her foxfire. A disquieting thought struck the girl: what if she hadn’t escaped from him after all? What if the entire thing had been staged to get her to show them the way back to Hanei? She’d checked and double checked and triple checked her trail as she’d fled back home, trying to make certain that no one could follow her, but what was one more impossible feat from those two?

And if that was true… she felt like throwing up. It meant that all of this was her fault. Her carelessness, her stupidity, her stupid belief that she could be anything more than a furry cocksucker, had destroyed her people. Maybe she shouldn’t even wait for the soldiers to find her. Maybe she should just go running out to meet them so she could begin paying for her crimes. Or better yet, maybe there was something sharp around. If the other foxes discovered that she’d killed herself, well, they certainly wouldn’t forgive what she’d done to them, but maybe at least they’d know that she was aware of her sins. That was the sort of end that the last and worst white furred fox of Hanei deserved, to die alone and unloved. She should-

Hanabi was so wrapped up in her self-hatred that she didn’t hear the fox coming until it was too late. The animal appeared in the doorway, and their eyes met. The girl didn’t need to see the collar dangling from the fox’s neck to know that she wasn’t from Hanei. She stared at the woman silently, not bothering to run. The fox would cry out and the soldiers would come, and that was probably for the best. No more than Hanabi deserved, really.

But the stranger didn’t sound the alarm, or run to tell the others. She just stared back silently, her expression filled with the same terror that Hanabi felt. Seconds ticked slowly by with neither of them moving, while the solders in the background drew nearer. Then, when there was almost no time left at all, the woman’s appearance changed. Hanabi gaped in horror at the ugly, violent transformation. It wasn’t the graceful shift from one form to another that kitsune did. It was more like the fox was being mangled and twisted, bits of it ripped away by an unseen force, leaving behind a young blond woman. She appeared entirely human, with no fox ears or tails that would mark her as kitsune.

The stranger darted forward and Hanabi flinched, but the woman was simply climbing onto the same bed the girl hid under. Hanabi watched in shock, not understanding what was going on, as several soldiers entered the room, visible to her only as faceless legs. She listened mutely as the woman was chastised for sleeping, and the soldiers began to rape her in punishment. She laid there, frozen and curled up, as the bedsprings above her creaked and the blonde was viciously assaulted.

“Fuck me, and here I thought her million dollar twat would be something special,” grumbled one of the soldiers, though it sounded like all of them were vigorously going at her. “I already creamed four fox cunts today that were all better than Rich Bitch’s here.”

“What, you thought it was gonna come with some fucking gold plating or something?” said one of the others. “Maybe a little voucher sticking out her cervix that you can redeem for a new car?” There was the smack of a hand hitting flesh, and the woman squealed. “She’s just another stuck up cunt who used to think she ran the whole fucking universe. She’s never gonna be as fresh and tight as all these foxy bitches, but that ain’t the point. You gotta appreciate the fucking atmosphere, man. Bitch used to have servants at her beck and call, used to have everything she could ever want, used to eat the fanciest fucking food and wear the fanciest fucking dresses and be happy as a pig in shit every day, and now?” He grunted and the woman whimpered in response. “Now all she’s got is my hot spunk up her guts.”

“Besides,” said a third man,”it’s kinda refreshing having a fucktoy that doesn’t just heal away all the shit you do to her. Don’t get me wrong, I love how these fox sluts can be drowning in cum and it still feels like you’re breaking open a tight virgin twat every time. But sometimes you just want to mark a bitch and know it’s gonna last, yeah?” The woman squealed again, more loudly this time, and the entire bed shook violently. “Easy now, girl, easy now! Don’t want the knife to slip, not when we’re just having a bit of fun, you and me. Just making sure you’ll remember whose cum is about to be sitting in your stomach. You don’t hold still, maybe my hand zigs where it shoulda zagged and it ends up being a permanent reminder.”

“Who could care less what shit’s going on in her head?” said the first man scornfully. “I just want a soft, snug twat for my prick. So if you don’t hurry up and start being a better fuck, Rich Bitch, maybe I’ll shove my damn knife up here instead, cut this lazy, useless twat right out of you. How’s that for some goddamn atmosphere?”

The gangrape felt like it went on for hours. It was long enough for the three men to each enjoy all three of the blonde’s holes. By the time they were sated, she was crying softly while cum and blood dripped off the sheets and onto the floor. Hanabi silently watched it drip down, her body stiff and cramping from holding her position for so long. She’d barely dared to breathe for fear that she would be discovered. All thoughts of “just getting it over with” had crumbled in the face of the brutality in store for her.

“One of you grab Rich Bitch,” one of them said. “Sounds like everyone else already left. We gotta hurry back before the commander gives us hell.”

“Aww, don’t worry about that,” said another, grabbing the blonde by the hair and hauling her off the bed. “Just gotta tell him we were busy disciplining the disobedient cunt here.” She let out a small sob, but didn’t resist as she was dragged out of the room and down the hall.

Hanabi didn’t risk moving a muscle as she heard them leave. Only after several minutes of complete silence did she let herself relax, her breath coming out in a shaky, horrified gasp. They were gone. They were gone and she wasn’t about to be raped. She didn’t know who that woman was or why she’d behaved that way, only that Hanabi owed her safety to her.

Another few minutes passed before she risked getting out from under the bed, and more before she was willing to take slow, stumbling steps out of the room, her head darting back and forth to try and keep an eye on every possible direction. But her caution proved unnecessary; the temple was empty. There was only Hanabi and the broken remains of Inari’s Flame. She had overheard its destruction, but she still wept at the sight. The flame that they’d maintained for centuries, that they’d dedicated the bodies of every fallen kitsune to, extinguished for no other reason than cruelty itself.

To Hanabi, it was the perfect symbol for the fate she’d brought to all of Hanei.

**********

Hours later, Hanabi was still free. Occasionally a soldier or two wandered through the temple looking for something to steal or smash, but they were easy to evade. Everyone else seemed content to remain in the village below with all their captives. The white haired girl spent all morning forced to listen to the sounds of their constant orgy drifting up, cruel laughter mixed with desperate screams, begging, and sobbing.

And then around noon, it stopped. Not all at once, but gradually over the course of about ten minutes. At first, Hanabi thought that perhaps the soldiers were operating on a nocturnal schedule and had gone to sleep, or were maybe even leaving the village, but when she dared to look out one of the windows, she could still see them bustling around. They were slowly herding everyone towards the village amphitheater, a circular open area building near the base of the hill. There was no way she could leave the fragile safety of the temple, let alone try and sneak closer, but her eyes were sharp enough to pick out most of what was going on, and the amphitheater itself had been designed to have excellent acoustics. On a good day, performing musicians could be heard throughout the entire village.

It wasn’t just the women being forcibly marched through the streets, but all the male and non-binary foxes as well. The others hadn’t been violated like the women, but they were still naked, dirty, and bloody. Thankfully, there were no sign of any kits; Saya and Yumiko must have been successful in getting them to safety. The soldiers were only too happy to bind the women with their own tails, but they seemed more cautious about the others, because most of them were bound with genuine rope or chains, and at least half had one or more limbs broken and bound so that they wouldn’t heal. There were steel cages about the size of a prison cell set up in the amphitheater, each large enough to hold about five people comfortably; the non-female foxes were being crammed into them twenty or thirty at a time.

Many of the soldiers seemed to have already claimed informal ownership of specific women. There were small clusters of soldiers everywhere, some as small as two or three men, others reaching upwards of twenty, each with one or two hapless foxes in the middle. Hanabi could see little of the women, but there were enough glimpses of them being used to turn her stomach. None of the women appeared to be putting up any kind of fight, and the mutilated foxes that still dangled upside down from the trees were a grim testament to why.

Everyone was too far away to make out faces, but Hanabi didn’t need details to recognize the man standing on the amphitheater stage as everyone gathered. A brown haired fox knelt at Levi’s feet, her mouth around his cock. He was casually crushing one of her ears with his fist to keep her from backing up, but it didn’t seem necessary. If anything, it looked to Hanabi like the woman was seeking to push her head even closer and fit yet more of his fat prick down her throat. Her arms were bound behind her with a tail, and another was knotted around her neck at its middle to create a crude leash that Levi held in his other hand.

Sudden movement drew Hanabi’s eyes. One of the captive male foxes was struggling with the soldiers who’d been leading him in. Both of his arms were broken, but that didn’t stop him from hurling the men away with his tails and charging towards the stage. “Tomo!” he cried out. “Tomo!” Hanabi recognized his voice: it was Tobi. Which meant the woman on stage had to be…

Tomo tried to turn her head to look back at her brother, but Levi yanked her back onto his cock. Hanabi watch him sneer and his lips moved. Hanabi’s closest friend in the world shuddered, then began desperately deepthroating him, slapping her head against his groin so violently that the white haired girl could almost hear her gagging. Soldiers caught up to Tobi and brought him down as he tried to push through the crowd, shackling him hand to foot and tearing his tails off in a matter of seconds. Levi made a beckoning motion, and his men dragged the bruised and bloody fox up to the stage.

Levi must have wanted everyone to hear him, because he spoke loudly enough that Hanabi could make out his words. “Is this your mate, animal?” Tobi groaned and said something inaudible that made the blond man laugh. “Your **sister**. Well, your sister isn’t a very good cocksucker yet, but we’re making do. Show your brother how much you’ve learned today about licking dick, fox slut.” Tomo pulled her head back, lines of saliva connecting her lips to Levi’s shaft, and began to lap at him. Her movements were anxious and urgent, and Hanabi could see her friend’s head tilt up every few seconds, as though to check her rapist’s face for signs of disapproval. “See? I haven’t had a bitch break so easy in years. Or maybe she just loves the taste of my cock. Is that it?” Tomo nodded her assent. “Thought so. Nuzzle my balls too, cocksucker. And clean my ass crack while you’re down there.” The brunette shuddered, but bent her head lower and began to obey.

“And while your sister gets busy, animal, you’re going to pick five people for me.” When Tobi shook his head, Levi said something to one of the soldiers. The man nodded and kicked the fox in the ribs, hard enough to make Tobi cry out in pain. “I’ll make this so simple even you furry freaks can understand. When you fuck up as badly as this piece of shit over here, we don’t just punish you. You get to choose five foxes to die along with you for your stupidity. Or, you can be a pussy like this one and refuse to pick, and then we pick **ten**.” He began pointing at random. “Her. Her. Him. Her.”

“Stop!” Tobi demanded. “They didn’t do any-!” The soldier who’d kicked him before did it again, this time square in the face.

In short order, ten kitsune were dragged to the stage. They all seemed to be in a state of stunned disbelief as soldiers began binding them and removing their tails. “Fuck the pretty ones first if you want,” Levi told the men working. “But one hour from now, I want to see all eleven of these animals broken and hanging.” The soldiers nodded and started carrying the foxes, Tobi included, out of the amphitheater. Levi pointed at the young man, whose face was a mask of blood at this point. “Spare that one’s eyes and ears, and put him somewhere with a good view of my tent. He can spend the last few days of his life watching me try and train his sister into a decent fucktoy.”

Levi hauled Tomo to her feet and told her something. She nodded fearfully, then turned around and bent over, sticking her ass towards him. She shifted backwards, finding his cock with her slit, and began to rock back and forth on her feet, fucking him with her pussy. While she pleasured him, the shy brunette was forced to face forwards, and take in the hundreds of foxes watching her debase herself for the man who’d just ordered her brother’s execution.

The blond man looked out his captives while Tomo worked. “Your days of leeching off this land like vermin are over,” he announced. “You now belong to Paragon. Some of you will devote the rest of your lives to breeding us fresh foxes. You will spend every waking hour being fucked, you will live on piss, cum, and the cheapest slop that doesn’t kill you, and you’ll be tossed in the incinerator like any other piece of trash the minute you’re no longer fuckable enough to enjoy. The rest of you will come to envy those foxes.”

He pinched Tomo’s clitoris lightly as a warning, and the girl whimpered and sped up her rocking, her eyes wide and hopeless as they looked down on the crowd. “We’re going to spend the next few days finding out which of you deserve to be breeders, and which aren’t good as anything more than meat for the Paradisium.” His smile had no humor to it, only eager malice. “No matter how bad you think you have it here, I can promise that they’ll treat you worse. We’re just looking to satisfy our cocks and put those wombs to work; they want to make you **hurt**. Think of every moment of suffering here as a preview of what it will be like to be meat.” Without warning, he raked his fingernails down Tomo’s side, leaving bloody lines behind and making the brunette squeal in terror. “And as durable as you furry fucktoys are, it could be years before they torture you enough to kill you.”

Levi turned his attention to the foxes in cages. “As for you worthless pieces of shit, you’re only alive for two reasons. First, to encourage the good behavior of your wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. Second, because so far it looks like your bitches almost always need fox spunk to pump out brats. We’re working on ways around that, and in the meantime any soldier here who can beat the odds and knock up a furry cunt gets to take any fucktoy of his choice home with him.” His men seemed to already be very familiar with the offer, but they cheered it happily anyway.

He slapped Tomo’s ass, and she wordlessly shifted her position to swallow him up with her asshole instead. From the way she moved, it was far from the first time she’d been raped that way today, but it was still very painful. “Before we get back to enjoying ourselves, I do have one piece of good news for all of you,” Levi said. “You have exactly one hope of salvation, which is more than I give most sluts.”

His eyes scanned the crowd. “There’s a white haired, white furred cumdump of mine that was stupid enough to think she could run away from me.” Hanabi’s face went pale, and she had to tamp down the sudden urge to go hide in the smallest, darkest place she could find. “I want her. So I’ll make you the most generous offer you’ll ever receive: give me the runaway cunt, and you go free. You and your entire family can walk out of here, no questions asked, and no one will stop you.”

Hanabi’s heart sank. There was no way any of them would help her now, and she couldn’t blame a single one of them. If she was in their shoes, it wouldn’t be easy to pass up an offer like that, and for her? The stupid white furred bitch that no one liked, who’d caused all of this in the first place? Most of the foxes down there probably wouldn’t hesitate to turn her in even without a reward for it.

The girl listened closely as Levi began explaining the rules for the foreseeable future while continuing to rape her friend. Most of it wasn’t particularly surprising, just grim and humiliating. While everyone else was left to rot in the cages, the women were expected to service the soldiers however they liked. Sex was the obvious priority, but any other request was to be followed as well, “like a good little bitch”. Those who could best perform as trained animals and sex toys would earn the dubious honor of becoming breeders when the days long orgy was over and everyone was transported away. Failures would become meat. And those that balked at orders, fought back, or attempted to escape, would be tortured and strung up to die a slow death, along with the five foxes they’d chosen or the ten picked at random for them.

The surprise came at the very end, when soldiers wheeled in a cart stacked high with bloody rags. Hanabi gasped at the sight: foxskins. It seemed like every skin in the village was piled up there. She squinted, trying to catch sight of her own distinctive white pelt; it had resembled her smallclothes when it had been ripped off of her, but it would’ve reverted to its natural appearance by now. If it was in there, she couldn’t see it.

“If it were up to me,” Levi announced, “half those flea bitten pelts would already be in the bonfire, and the other half would be chopped up and on their way to Paragon for vulpan production. But apparently,” his lip curled up in a sneer, “none of you dumb animals have ever conceived after we destroyed hers.". So look on the bright side, breeders: you’ll have a rag to mop up all the cum. When I give the order, you will come up one at a time to identify your skin. If yours isn’t here, you were probably an idiot that gave my men trouble when they bagged you, and you should start looking forward to being meat.”

He grabbed Tomo’s hips then, and from the way the brunette whimpered and squirmed, he was finishing in her ass. Once he was done, he said something quiet to her, then pushed her off of him. She was caught off balance and spun around trying to catch herself before falling face first onto the stage, revealing her swollen and gaping asshole to the crowd. All the soldiers laughed or gave a mocking cheer.

Tomo struggled to her knees, her hands still bound behind her, and crawled over to the pile of skins. After a slight hesitation, she buried her face in the dirty, bloodstained mass and drew one of the skins out with her teeth. It looked the same as any other pelt to Hanabi, and she knew that being closer would have offered no more clues, but foxes felt a certain connection to their skins. They could no more fail to recognize theirs than they could confuse someone else’s hands for their own.

One of the soldiers snatched it away from her, and the brunette cringed when he drew a knife and casually began cutting crude circles into it. Hanabi didn’t understand what he was doing until he followed the second circle with a straight cut. Not circles, numbers: 001. Another soldier was already crouched over Tomo, doing something with a needle and thick black thread. When he stepped away, the same number had been stitched onto her left forearm.

Her skin was tossed to the side, and the girl crawled back to Levi to start cleaning his cock while the next kitsune was brought to the stage to identify their pelt. It took hours to go through everyone, long enough for the sun to sink almost to the horizon. The soldiers passed the time by enjoying the closest kitsune, hundreds of women being raped simultaneously while they waited to be pushed forward and marked.

Most foxes needed only seconds to find their pelt, and fewer still as the pile of unidentifiable skins shrank, but those whose skins were missing took much longer. Hanabi watched them frantically nose through the remaining skins, trying to find theirs before a soldier grew impatient and hauled them away. They were marked too, with a thick X on their left forearms to show that they weren’t usable for breeding, and were destined only for a slow death.

Several times she almost stopped watching, sick at the sight of so many people suffering, but Hanabi forced herself to remain at the window and witness the entire thing. Part of it was pragmatism; while she was watching, she might catch sight of her own skin. But mostly she watched because it was the only thing she could do for them. If she’d imagined a scenario like this a week ago, it would’ve been part of some grand adventure where she’d sneak past the guards and free everyone. But she was just a coward. Hanabi watched the suffering down below, and the strongest thought in her head was that she didn’t want to be like them. Even if the only alternative was to hide in the temple until she died of thirst, it was an easy choice to make. Anything was better than returning to Levi.

The pile was nearly gone when Hanabi saw it, there at the very bottom: the only white foxskin there. Excitement and anxiety vied for her attention; if she could get to her skin, she’d have her foxfire back. She’d be able to open the door to the gods’ sanctuary. But that meant going down there. It meant that she couldn’t keep telling herself that she was just one powerless kitsune who couldn’t help the others, who didn’t have to feel guilty about prioritizing her own safety.

Hers wasn’t the only foxskin remaining when the last fox had gone on stage. Several dozen others were there, left behind by the kitsune who’d been sentenced to death. Levi regarded what was left critically, and spat on them. “Someone go burn this trash,” he ordered. Two soldiers nodded and started wheeling the cart out of the amphitheater. Hanabi helplessly watched her only hope leave.

Her eyes followed the cart as it wound away. She could already see its destination: a bonfire in the middle of what had been the most dense district. Soldiers had been leaving the amphitheater once their favored foxes were done, and many had brought them there for what she could only describe as a victory orgy. Kitsune were being passed from man to man, a different cock every time and no hole left empty. Conscious of Levi’s speech, many of the women were doing their best to actively participate and earn their survival. They sucked and bounced and wriggled and humped, trying to be good fucktoys for the men that had destroyed their lives.

The bonfire was being fed by whatever flammable possessions the soldiers didn’t feel like stealing: clothing, books, bedding, furniture. The men hauling the foxskins dumped them nearby with the other waiting fuel, and then abandoned them to go join in the orgy themselves, showing zero hesitation about destroying the priceless pelts.

The sun finished setting, and Hanei’s last day drew to a close. Just twenty four hours ago it had been a bustling village, home to hundreds. Now most of it lay dark and silent, its buildings pillaged and broken. All the light and warmth was gone, replaced only by the angry flickering flames. And the men responsible for its fall drank and laughed and fucked their captives around the fire, enjoying the spoils of their siege.

And none of them were watching over the skins.

Hanabi didn’t notice it at first, and when she finally did, she tried to ignore it, but it was right there, staring her in the face. The skins were near the edge of the bonfire’s light, right next to the inky darkness of a cloudy night and a dead town. A kitsune’s eyes would be sensitive enough to see someone approaching the pile from outside the light, but a human’s? And with the bonfire right there, preventing their eyes from adjusting to the night? The soldiers would be effectively blind. She could go there. She could slip down to the town and retrieve her skin without any of them ever knowing she was there.

The idea was more terrifying than anything she’d seen all day. She wouldn’t just be exposing herself to danger, she’d be jumping headfirst into it. The old Hanabi would have laughed at the idea. The new one wanted to go hide under the bed again and forget she’d ever noticed anything. She couldn’t go back to Levi. She **couldn’t**. The hours she’d spent in the forest had been the worst in her life, so terrible that she’d rather die than experience anything like that again. The soldiers partying in the ruins of Hanei didn’t represent hours; to be captured by them meant years, maybe even decades of abuse, capped by death.

But… she couldn’t do nothing either.

Hanabi wasn’t a hero. The last few days had proved that to her ten times over. She didn’t want adventure or excitement, and while she cared for her fellow villagers, she had no desire to sacrifice herself for them. But this wasn’t about what she wanted. It was about the fact that even when she closed her eyes, all she could see were the atrocities going on down below. If she sat by and let it happen when she knew that she might have been able to save everyone, her regret would be more painful than any torture Levi could devise. If she knew with certainty that all that waited after death was oblivion, she wouldn’t hesitate to slash open her wrists and save herself from this terrible responsibility. But if what they’d been taught was true and death was a return to Inari, then she’d just carry all of her guilt and shame back with her. She’d forever be the white furred fox that destroyed Hanei.

So even though she hated it, even though tears leaked from her eyes and whimpers from her lips, even though her limbs shook with terror before she’d so much as looked away from the window, Hanabi left the safety of the temple and descended into the hell that waited below.

**********

For the first few minutes, she expected to hear angry shouting at any moment. All the soldiers would descend upon her, laughing at how foolish she’d been for thinking she could go unnoticed. But no shouting came. There were a handful of men away from the bonfire, out patrolling the village, but their eyes were no match for hers, and she always stayed at least twice as far away as she estimated their night vision reached. She couldn’t be too patient - the supply of fuel for the bonfire was steadily dwindling, and the pelts would go up in smoke long before morning - but she didn’t rush or take chances either, descending the hill with care and precision.

The intense chill that had accompanied the siege had vanished, but it was still bitterly cold now that the sun was down. Hanabi could feel it even with her winter clothes on, and the rest of Hanei didn’t have the luxury of clothing anymore. Many of the women were shaking from more than just fear and exhaustion; the bonfire wasn’t nearly enough to keep them warm, and the soldiers just seemed amused by their state. The white haired girl picked up more than one comment about how a belly full of hot cum would help chase away the cold, which seemed to be as much assistance as any of the men were going to offer.

By the time she was close enough to feel the heat of the fire, Hanabi’s nerves had eased up just a little. None of the soldiers had displayed the slightest notice of her presence, and she was more than halfway to her prize. This plan of hers might actually work. She might be able to get her foxskin back. It wasn’t until she drew closer that she realized the awful mistake she’d made.

The humans couldn’t see past the light of the bonfire. But the other kitsune could.

Hanabi froze as she saw four women looking directly at her, their eyes wide with surprise. Maybe if they knew that she didn’t just want her skin for herself, that she would go back to the temple and try to bring help, they would have had reason to stay silent. But all they saw was the white fox of Hanei, the girl who’d doomed them all in the first place and now was abandoning them completely, trying to sneak away under cover of darkness. Hanabi was a monster, a coward, and their only hope of being let go. They had no reason to stay silent, and a million to start shouting.

But they didn’t.

The white haired girl was dumbfounded as all four women turned their attention away from her and back to assisting their abusers. She could almost think that she’d made a mistake and they hadn’t noticed her after all, but she could see their eyes occasionally darting back to her, watching over her. What on earth was wrong with them?

She was so confused that she didn’t notice the soldier approaching until he was nearly on top of her. He was a portly man with a young dark haired shopkeeper named Aya by his side. One hand casually gripped her long ponytail, using it like a leash to make her crawl next to him as he stumbled away from the bonfire, clearly drunk. “Juss need to empty my bladder,” he was slurring. “Then I’m alllllll yours, sexy.”

Hanabi’s eyes darted around frantically looking for a means of escape, but she was trapped. The drunk was heading right towards her. Human eyes were poor, but even he wouldn’t be able to miss her once he got close. And he was already close enough that he’d notice the movement and hear her footsteps on the road if she fled. Her knees shook, and it was suddenly a struggle not to collapse into a heap. She’d fucked it up, just like she’d known she would. She was a stupid worthless fuck-up, and now they were going to find her. They were going to find her and rape her and give her to Levi and…

“Please sir,” Aya whined out of the blue, “I… I can’t wait any longer! I need you to f-fuck me right now!” The girl nuzzled his leg with her face. “I need more of your warm gooey sperm in me, or I’ll just die!”

The woman was… helping her? It made no sense to Hanabi, but there was no mistaking it. The man laughed. “See? Told ya you’d be begging for it soon, sexy. But wait your fucking turn.”

Aya’s eyes darted towards Hanabi and back, and then, with clear difficulty, she forced out more words. “I… I… w-want to… drink it! I-I want to drink your pee! Please let me drink it, sir!”

“Gahhhhd,” the man breathed, “you fucking furballs are degenerate little sluts when you get the chance, aren’t ya?” To Hanabi’s relief, he stopped just a few feet away from her and yanked on Aya’s hair to put her in front of him. “Alright alright. You want to guzzle my piss that bad, sexy, who’m I to say no? Open wide.” That was all the warning he gave her before he began to urinate.

For the first few seconds, it spattered all over the woman’s face and chest, but she managed to catch the stream in her mouth. Aya looked nauseated, but she gulped down one mouthful after another, until the stream dried up and he shoved his soft member into her mouth. “Can’t forget the best part, sexy. Gotta suck out those last few drops.” She reluctantly obeyed, but when she tried to pull back afterward, he used her ponytail to keep her in place. “Not yet, not yet. Give him a few kisses first, tell ‘im how much ya love him.” By the time his cock reappeared a couple minutes later, it was covered with spit and standing tall. “There,” he said proudly. “Now let’s get back to it, sexy. You and me got a baby to make!”

Hanabi stared at Aya as the fox allowed herself to be dragged back towards everyone else. She’d been in her store before, spoken to the woman a few times here and there, but nothing beyond that. They were barely acquaintances, and certainly not friends. But Aya had unmistakably helped her just now. No matter how her brain tried to reinterpret the situation, it couldn’t find any other explanation for her behavior. She’d gone out of her way, even debased herself, to protect Hanabi. Why?

She didn’t have time to stop and consider the situation. While she’d been stuck in place waiting for the drunk soldier to move, she’d lost precious minutes. The bonfire had already finished consuming most of the prized possessions that had been relegated to kindling. The next time someone decided to stoke the fire, it would be with the foxskins.

The safe route to the pelts would be to keep her distance from the bonfire, and use the nearby buildings as cover to avoid being seen by any other foxes. But if she did that, the foxskins would almost certainly be ashes before she reached them. If Hanabi wanted to get there fast enough, she needed to circle the bonfire in as direct a route as possible, staying just out of range of the soldiers’ vision, but not that of the other kitsune. All it would take was a single one raising an alarm to end everything and send her back to Levi. There was no time left: she had to choose right now whether or not she would trust all of them to stay silent.

Hanabi began to move.

She could see whenever one of the others noticed her. Sometimes it was as large a reaction as a gasp, sometimes as small as a flicker of the eyes, but almost every fox there saw her on her way to her skin. And none of them said anything. And it wasn’t just that; more than one woman smiled at the sight of her, though they quickly hid it, or began to cry fresh tears. It didn’t make any sense. She’d known for decades now that they all feared her, if not outright hated her. It’s why they were so often distant from her, why they treated her like she wasn’t really one of them. She was the white fox of Hanei, and she couldn’t be trusted.

She didn’t understand, but this wasn’t the time to think about it. For now, she focused on creeping up to the pelts, until she was almost close enough to touch them. “That’s close enough, slut,” said a voice behind her, and the white haired girl’s breath caught in her throat. “Turn around, slowly. Any sudden movements, and I promise you won’t like what happens next.”

No, no. No, no, no, no, no… Shivering from more than the cold now, Hanabi shuffled her feet and turned around. For a second, she thought she was looking at another kitsune, but the collar around his neck said otherwise. The werefox’s mouth opened in a wide grin. “I was starting to get bored, slut. Been following you for the last ten minutes, waiting to see what you were getting up to.”

“Please,” she began, and the werefox cut her off with a low growl.

“I don’t need you to talk, slut,” he told her quietly. “I’ll have some fun with your mouth in a minute, but for now, just do me a favor and keep it shut.” He began to stalk closer to her. “We don’t want the others to hear, right? See, I don’t like to share. Commander promised a big fat bonus to whoever caught you, and if you get seen now, I’m gonna have to split that with every fucking asshole here. Be lucky if I end up with more than pocket change by the end. So we’re gonna leave them out of the loop. And since I’ve been stuck on goddamn patrol duty tonight while all those bastards get their dicks wet, here’s what’s gonna happen now: you’re going to strip out of those clothes, and then we’re gonna have our own little private party. Just you and me and your tight holes, all night long. If you’re a good girl who treats me right, I’ll go easy on you in the morning, tell the commander that you turned yourself in and didn’t give me any trouble.”

He was close enough for his tails to stroke her body, caressing her over her clothes. “But you make me work for my fun, slut, and I tell him you fought back. Didn’t give me any choice but to fuck you bloody, maybe chew off a leg or two to keep you from bolting. Neither of us wants that, right? **Right**?” She shook her head quickly. “Exactly. So get those clothes off, slut.”

Hanabi’s hands shook almost too badly to work as she started stripping like he’d ordered. She’d been so close. Her skin was practically in arms reach somewhere in the pile. She couldn’t give up now, not when she only needed a little time to find it. She peeled off her clothes, feeling like she was taking off a mask. Gone was the lie about being Hanabi the person, the young woman who got to eat pastries and have loving parents and dream of exploring the world. Now she was back to her real self: Hanabi the fucktoy.

She shivered as the cold night air washed over her, the bonfire doing almost nothing to blunt its edge. The vulpan’s tails were warm, but that was little comfort as they explored her exposed flesh. “Little skinny,” he said, “but lucky for you, that’s just the way I like it. The others can keep all those fat tittied, big ass sluts they’re fighting over right now. My dick likes them firm and tight, just like you.” One of his tails slapped her ass, and she let out a small squeak before she could help it. Another tail quickly wound around her neck, and the white haired girl found herself unable to breathe. “Shhhh, remember? It’s time to be a quiet fucktoy. You can scream all you want starting tomorrow.”

The tail eased up after a few seconds, but remained coiled around her neck, ready to silence her again if necessary. The vulpan tugged on it, and Hanabi almost fell forward before she caught herself. “Come on, slut, let’s find somewhere a little more private.”

“Please,” she whispered. If they moved further away from the foxskins, she’d lose all chance of retrieving hers, and then it would be over. This monster clearly had no intention of letting her out of sight until it was time to turn her in, not when she represented wealth and a warm sheath for his cock for the next few hours. She’d get no opportunity to escape him.

The tail around her neck tightened sharply just before another tail smacked her ass again, this time deliberately looking to hurt her, not just play with her body. Being choked was the only reason she didn’t cry out in pain. “I told you not to talk, slut,” the fox reminded her, and smacked her a few more times. “You can’t even do that right, maybe I should have a snack after all. If I chew off your tongue, it won’t be half as fun to throatfuck you, but you’ve got two other holes that could pick up the slack.”

“I... I’m sorry,” she whispered quickly as soon as she could breathe again. “I won’t draw attention, I promise. It’s just so cold. Can we please stay by the bonfire? I’ll make it good for you. I swear I’ll be such a good fucktoy for you if you let me stay here.” He didn’t answer at first, but he didn’t choke her again either. Desperate to convince him, she laid herself on the ground and put her legs up, spreading her slit open with her fingers.

“I, I’m ovulating right now,” she lied. She didn’t need to pretend that her teeth were chattering from the cold. “You’re all t-trying to breed us, right? I-I can give you a baby. Kitsune a-are special. We have to choose to conceive. The others, th-they won’t let themselves get pregnant, not for the humans. B-but I’ll do it for you. You can be rich, a-and even keep me if you want. I can be y-y-your tight, baby making fucktoy, sir. I just w-want to be warm.”

She prayed that greed would overcome his caution. He had to know that she had an ulterior motive, but she was just a naked young woman. He was stronger and faster, and she was offering him everything he wanted. I’m harmless, she told him silently. Whatever I might be planning, you can stop it easily. So just say yes and let the stupid fucktoy think she still has a chance, even though you’re in complete control. She could only hope that he wouldn’t be right.

Hanabi had to bite her lip to keep from screaming when the vulpan came close enough to reveal its massive cock. She knew that foxes were typically well endowed - no one was much concerned with modesty in their natural form - and that some partners even preferred to make love in that state, but that knowledge was a far cry from seeing one up close and knowing it was soon going to be inside her. Even Levi’s thick cock couldn’t compare.

He rubbed himself up and down against her slit. “Consider this your job audition. Show me how good a fucktoy you can be, slut. Do well enough, show me that you’re the best fuck I’m gonna find in this whole village, and you’ve got yourself a deal. I’ll even take you to one of the houses, let you relax on a real bed while we enjoy ourselves, blankets and all.”

“Thank you, sir,” she whispered, and swallowed. “W-would you please choke me while you fuck me? You’re so big and thick that I don’t think I’ll be able to keep quiet otherwise.” The way his cock jerked told her that she’d struck a nerve, and his tail immediately drew tight again. Hanabi set aside her discomfort and pulled herself even wider apart for him.

Even with her help, his cockhead was far larger than the entrance to her pussy. Without supernatural strength, he might have been unable to proceed, and even with it, it was a tight fit, and Hanabi felt a sharp pain that suggested she’d injured something in the process. The vulpan growled in pleasure as her pussy lips hugged him, and he began working himself in deeper. It felt like being stabbed in slow motion, but the white haired girl forced herself to wrap her legs around him, encouraging the fox to penetrate her.

It took more than two full minutes for him to reach her cervix, and her lungs were burning by then. His tail would loosen occasionally to let her catch a few breaths, but she wasn’t at all surprised that those moments were rare and brief. He was enjoying the power he had over her. That was good. Painful and humiliating, but good. She needed him to let his guard down around her, make him believe that she was completely helpless.

He was wedged inside her so tightly that she could feel the pulse of his veins, but that didn’t stop him from pulling back in a single vicious motion that made her feel like he’d just gouged a hole in her. Apparently that first slow thrust had been the foreplay, because he slammed back into her with speed and intensity, making her convulse when his head struck her cervix. The vulpan only grew faster and rougher with each stroke.

Hanabi had witnessed more than a few women get raped by these creatures that day. She knew what she was in for. Their stamina seemed limitless, and when they came, he would spend the next minute or more gushing his seed into her. She had been lying about kitsune procreation and their inability to become forcibly impregnated; it was a difficult feat, but not impossible, and it seemed downright inevitable that this monster and his disgusting warm spunk would pull it off.

The vulpan’s breath was hot and foul as it humped her. “Gonna make that flat belly swell,” he whispered, sounding more like he was talking to himself than her. “Pump your womb full of cream and then watch you grow. Suck the milk from those perfect little tits.” His movements were becoming crazed as he continued talking himself into an orgasm. He wasn’t fucking her pussy anymore, he was attacking it, impaling her on his cock like he was trying to drive it straight into her stomach. And instead of trying to dissuade him, Hanabi was going along with it, bucking against him, helping him hollow her out and leave her gaping. The two of them competed to see who could fuck her lithe frame harder.

The white haired girl felt him swell up inside her, his cockhead feeling so fat she was half convinced it must be the size of a bowling ball. A second later came the moment she’d been waiting for: his hold on her neck slackened as the initial rush of pleasure hit him.

All nine of her tails struck him in the stomach and sent him flying.

The way his prick was suddenly and violently ejected from her was the most painful moment of the entire rape, but a necessary one, and why she’d forced herself to fuck him back so hard. She needed to be loose enough to move him, and so she’d helped him ruin her. That didn’t make it hurt any less, but she’d heal.

There wasn’t any time to waste. Hanabi didn’t bother spending the precious seconds she’d need to rise to her feet, choosing instead to roll over and scrabble across the ground to the skins. If a normal human had just raped her, this plan would have no chance of succeeding. Her rapist would already be pouncing on her, furious about her act of rebellion.

But it wasn’t a normal human that had raped her. He was a vulpan, and right now he was still in the throes of his extended climax. She could hear him moving, trying to regain control over his body, but for just a few seconds his dick was still in charge, and he twitched helplessly in the dirt as it spurted happily.

Hanabi threw herself into the pile of skins, seeking out her own. For a single panicked second, she thought it wasn’t there, but then she felt it, warm and familiar. A moment later, a white fox burst from the pile, finally whole again.

Her first instinct was to run, but her legs wouldn’t move. All the other skins here were still going to be burned. Once that happened, their owners would remain mutilated forever, even if they were somehow rescued later. Nobody could save them but her.

She wasn’t a hero. Even sneaking into the camp had been about her own needs, not the desire to save anyone else. Hanabi wanted, truly wanted, to just run and forget about the other skins. Trying to do something about them would only get her captured.

But there was no one else who could do it. Only her.

It took all nine of her tails to gather the skins up like a bundle, and Hanabi felt like a fool as they dragged along the ground behind her. But it was working. And there were no cries of alarm behind her; the soldiers must be inebriated enough and so fixated on their victims that none had taken notice of the pelts disappearing. With luck, the men wouldn’t even realize they’d been taken, and just assume they’d been burned at some point. She’d gotten in, found her skin, and made it out. Her plan had almost worked.

Almost.

In fox form her senses were good enough to hear the soldier racing behind her. If she’d left the skins, she could’ve been out of sight before he’d recovered enough to chase after her, but she hadn’t been that smart. Hanabi could feel her foxfire returning, but far too slowly. He’d catch up to her before she had enough for the smallest working, and there would be no getting away from him then. At best, he’d rip off her tails, break her limbs, and fuck her half to death before dumping what was left of her on Levi’s doorstep. More likely, he’d do all that while making good on his threat to chew off pieces of her.

She had no particular plan in mind in heading towards the temple. It would have been smarter to try and flee the village altogether, though she was confident that he’d catch up to her well before she reached the forest. Hanabi ran there on pure instinct, seeking the safety and comfort that it had promised all her life.

She made it inside and felt the familiar twist in her heart at the sight of Inari’s Flame gone, charcoal still spilled all over the floor from the downed brazier. She eyed the smaller passages leading deeper in. She could try and hide like before, but even if he hadn’t seen her come in here, she’d be hiding from a fox’s nose now, not a human’s eyes and ears. Given her fear sweat and the vulpan’s own cum that was still splattered on her in places, she might as well be wrapped up in Christmas lights for all the good hiding would do her.

The sound of paws on stone announced that her pursuer had reached the temple. She whirled around to see him slowly stalking in, wary of a trap. He’d even closed the heavy temple doors behind him, ensuring she couldn’t hope to distract him long enough to run past him and back outside. The only other exits were the windows, and breaking through them would be loud enough to alert the other werefoxes who must be patrolling outside somewhere. She was stuck here. “You think you’re a clever little bitch, don’t you?” he snarled. “I love clever little bitches.”

“Stay back,” she warned him, trying to sound confident. It wasn’t easy, terrified and cold and her insides still aching from his presence. Changing into her fox form had reversed much of the damage his rough fucking had done to her insides, but not all. She’d need a few more minutes to heal, and by then he’d be busy tearing her apart all over again. “I have my foxfire now. Leave before I kill you.” She backed away from him, trying to keep some distance, and careful not to step on the scattered charcoal. Partly out of respect for the sacred fire they’d once fueled, and partly because the last thing she needed right now was to slip and fall.

The vulpan laughed, not slowing down in his approach. Unlike her, he didn’t bother avoiding the charcoal. There were soft crunching sounds as they crumbled under his bulk. “And that’s supposed to scare me? All you idiot foxes had that magic shit when you got here, and it didn’t save a single fucking one of you.”

Hanabi’s back legs hit the wall. “I-I’m not like them,” she said, cursing the tremble in her voice. “I can do things the others can’t.” She called up the small drops that had returned to her, and summoned a large orb of illusory flame that blasted air around it and sent out waves of heat, like the one she’d shown off at her birthday party just a few days and several eons ago.

The vulpan didn’t even acknowledge the flame as he stalked closer, and the illusion vanished in moments, leaving behind the actual source of heat: a small orb of genuine fire about the size of her pupil that hovered in the air before her. She tried to pour more foxfire into it, but she was fully drained once more. “I’m not going to warn you again,” she said, wanting to just curl up on the floor and die now. She might as well be threatening him with a matchstick. “Leave or burn.”

His laughter told her that her last ditch attempt had failed. “First I rip that skin off you,” he promised. “Then I think I make you eat it. Won’t be easy without teeth, but it’ll give you something to do while I turn your asshole inside out.” Despite his swagger, there was nothing careless about his movements, and all nine of his tails were poised and ready. He wasn’t going to underestimate her again.

Hanabi didn’t want to give up here. But there was nowhere to run, nothing to fight with, and she was out of ideas. She sank down into a crouch, resisting the urge to roll onto her back and beg for mercy. There was no way she was beating one of these things in a fight, but she’d at least make him work for it. If she was lucky, he’d accidentally claw out her throat or something. She let the pitiful speck of fire fall to the ground, where it splashed onto one of the lumps of charcoal.

And then fire blossomed all around them.

The sudden light and heat was overwhelming enough to make her cry out, but there was no pain. The flames rolling across the floor and up her body felt pleasant, soothing even. Like taking a nap in warm sunshine, or the warmth of a tight hug. She felt safe and loved and cradled in it.

The vulpan didn’t have the same reaction. The fire wasn’t burning him either, but something began to glow in his chest as the flames covered him, a small sphere that grew brighter and hotter until it simply melted away in the heat. She would never forget what happened next: a transformation a million times more intense and grotesque than the kind she’d witnessed other werefoxes make. Fur and flesh alike peeled away to leave behind a ragged, skinless creature whose organs spilled out onto the floor. It was trying to scream, but its lungs were too choked with blood as its entire body just… crumbled, like it had been made out of sand. It wasn’t a quick process, and it gurgled and twitched for long seconds before finally falling quiet and still, reduced to a bloody smear of flesh on the floor.

And then just as quickly as they’d appeared, the flames vanished. The warmth was replaced by winter cold so suddenly that Hanabi could almost think she’d imagined it all, if not for the dissolved corpse and the glowing charcoals.

She extended a hesitant paw towards one, and felt heat radiating from within. A deep, vast heat that made her recall all of her failed attempts to create flame back when she first began Kamio’s lessons. The fire inside the charcoal was the exact opposite of those hollow, empty illusions; it was **there** in a way she couldn’t put into words, so much stronger and more enduring than any real flame. In that moment, Hanabi felt certain that if she dropped the rock into the ocean, the entire sea would boil away long before its fire dimmed.

The glow faded away a few seconds later, and the carbon grew cool once more, but if she focused, she could still feel the heat locked deep inside of it. Hanabi didn’t realize she was crying until she heard the pattering of teardrops against the temple floor. Inari’s Flame wasn’t gone. Hidden, yes, but not extinguished, not destroyed. Just out of sight. It could be restored, all of it. And it had helped her. No, **they** had helped her.

She looked around and saw the pile of skins right where she’d left them, equally untouched by the fire. She had to get them out of the way, and the corpse too. She didn’t think anyone knew the vulpan had been in here, but someone had to visit the temple sometime. It took only a few minutes to hide the skins in one of the closets and get rid of the bloody stain with the aid of a bucket and a mop, but she spent them with her heart pounding, expecting someone to come bursting in any moment. But no one entered the temple, and soon as it looked exactly as it had when she first came in.

It felt like weeks passed during the hour she spent in the temple after that, waiting for her foxfire to come back. If she was more experienced, she wouldn’t need much to open the door, but her technique was still clumsy and uneven, and it would require everything she had. She spent the time going over the pattern Megumi had taught her, drilling it in her head a thousand times over, practicing with hand motions and visualizations and even scrawling it on one of the walls with some chalk before panicking and scrubbing it away.

Finally, it was time. She knelt in front of the hidden door in human form and began carefully summoning the foxfire shapes necessary. Part of her didn’t expect the pattern to work, just another prank by the crazy old priestess. Part of her was terrified that she’d remembered it wrong, and was missing some crucial piece. But when the last piece had been created, there was a small click, and a section of the wall swung open.

Inside was a tiny, bare space with no adornments. It didn’t even have a proper floor, only packed dirt covered in a thick, thick layer of dust, where an old set of footprints was just barely visible. It looked more like the space between rooms than a room itself. But at its center, a globe of blue light shimmered. Hanabi approached it carefully, staring at the mysterious thing. It wasn’t foxfire, she was certain of that much, but she had no idea what else it could be. Fingers trembling, half expecting the entire temple to suddenly crumble around her, she reached out and touched it.

And vanished.


	8. Rescued

Hanabi didn’t know what she’d expected a place where gods lived to look like. Something up in the clouds, maybe? Or just a bunch of glowy lights and booming voices?

What she found was a beach. She stood on a flat circle of white marble about ten feet in diameter and surrounded by pillars of the same material. Around it was a beach of golden sands that met a perfect blue sea. Though it had been the middle of the night just a moment ago, here the sun was high in the sky. She breathed in and found so many new scents. It was nothing like the familiar smells of Shirakami Sanchi. This place smelled of salt and sun, and beneath that something sweet.

“Hello?” she called out, hesitant to step off the marble disc without permission. For all she knew, she’d be labeled as an intruder and blasted with a thunder bolt or something. She looked around for someone, but the beach was empty of any people. “My… my name is Hanabi, from the village of Hanei! You know, the, the foxes? We, uh, we need your help! …Please?”

There was no response.

Further inland, she could see the beach gradually transform into an expanse of tall grass that would go nearly up to her waist. It was mostly flat, but there were trees dotting the grasslands, and she could see colorful things nestled in their branches. The white haired girl took another deep breath. Yes, fruit, that’s what she was smelling. She couldn’t make out details with her eyes, but her nose told her that there were several different kinds too. The wild orchard stretched for nearly a mile before ending at a vast array of white marble buildings. Hanabi stared at them hungrily. That had to be it, the home of the gods. She squinted, trying to catch any movement, but she was too far away.

“I’m, uh, I’m gonna walk closer, okay?” she announced. “I’m here in peace and all, so, y’know, please don’t smite me and stuff.” She gingerly stepped off the disc, flinching as her foot touched the sands, but there was no reaction, just the steady sound of the tide behind her. After pausing for another minute to make sure no one was going to pop up, she began trekking towards the buildings.

It wasn’t easy to get through the tall grass, especially with her eyes fixated on the settlement in the distance. What gods would she find in there, she wondered. Would she know them, or were all the stories and mythologies wrong and they’d be completely unrecognizable? And what was she going to say when she found them? In stories, the gods would do something like demand that the heroine prove herself worthy, and she’d give a noble speech entreating them for help that would win them over. But Hanabi had no idea what she could say other than ‘please save us’. Would she even need to say anything? Gods were supposed to be all knowing, right? But then again, if they’d known about what was going to happen to Hanei, they wouldn’t have just stayed in here and watched. Unless they knew and didn’t care.

The closer she got, the more a sense of foreboding grew inside her. Shouldn’t she be able to see them moving around by now? Maybe they were all out of sight, but shouldn’t she at least be hearing something more than the gentle waves behind her? The white haired girl nearly tripped over something in the dirt because she was too intent on looking forward. She crouched down within the tall grass and felt at the ground beneath her to see what had made her stumble, finding old but familiar lines in the soil. This had been farmland once, but not for a very very long time. Now it sat unused. **Abandoned.**

Hanabi shifted into her fox form and broke into a run, sprinting through the grass. She had to be wrong. She couldn’t have come this far for nothing. This was a special place, a sacred hideaway that her people had guarded for centuries. It couldn’t just be empty!

She emerged from the grass with the settlement right in front of her. The buildings had been beautiful once, and despite being cracked and crumbling with age, they were still marvels of artistry and architecture. The finest building in Hanei had never possessed the casual grace and elegance that these exuded even in their decay. But it wasn’t their beauty that drew her eye and filled her with despair. Broken walls, destroyed roofs… she’d seen all of this before, back in Hanei. The signs of a siege were unmistakable.

Maybe the gods had fled from their own invaders, maybe they’d all been killed or captured, maybe they’d fought them off and then left to find a new hiding place. It didn’t matter, and Hanabi couldn’t bring herself to care. All that mattered was that the marvelous and utterly useless buildings stood broken and barren, reduced to empty shells. There was no sign of life anywhere to be seen, and it looked like no one had called this place home for decades at least, maybe centuries.

The gods were gone, and no one was coming to save Hanei.

**********

“…no, that still doesn’t work…” Tanya mumbled, and shifted slightly on the bed. She was looking at the laptop in front of her, but her eyes were glassy and unfocused. Without her ever present smile, she very nearly looked like an entirely different person.

Astaria wasn’t sure that the woman realized that she was talking out loud, or that the dragon’s ears were good enough to pick up what she was saying. “… oh four… oh seven… what if I send them chickens…?” Every so often her fingers would type some quick message. If Astaria had been in a position to see what was being written, perhaps she could have made some sense of what she was hearing, but it was all meaningless gibberish to her. “Oh two… and with some better bandages…”

The dark haired woman’s pussy was sweet and slick and almost feverishly hot as Astaria lapped it in a relaxed rhythm. She’d spent the last two hours hogtied and on her stomach in Tanya’s bed, with her face between the woman’s legs while Tanya made notes on her laptop. Her… she didn’t want to use the term mistress, but it was getting harder to deny that it fit… seemed to enjoy nothing more than having Astaria’s tongue stroking her insides while she worked. Normally she was too focused on whatever she was typing to actually orgasm, and just wanted gentle, steady stimulation. Until she took a break, that is, at which point she would do her best to make up for lost time.

“I think that’s as good as I can manage it for now,” Tanya said. “I’ll review it all again tonight and see what’s changed but right now, that should just… about… do it. There!” She finished up whatever she was typing, closed her laptop and set it down next to her, then visibly brightened. She smiled at Astaria and spread her legs a little wider. “You now have my full attention, Delphy. Mmm, and then some.”

The girl rolled her head back and moaned deliberately as Astaria’s tongue delicately lashed at her folds at a stronger and more insistent pace than before, seeking the girl’s most sensitive spots. She was ashamed to admit that she knew Tanya’s pussy better than her own by now. Not that her own was ever given much chance to be neglected either… even now, a large vibrator buzzed softly but insistently inside it, sending little tingles of pleasure through her body. Tanya had the remote next to her, and would idly change the settings from time to time, making the stimulation gentler or rougher. At times she’d even lean over so that she could pump the thing in and out of Astaria. To the dragon’s shame, she’d already cum five times in these two hours, twice more than Tanya had. She knew rationally that the girl was cheating, doing just the right thing at just the right time to induce her pet to cum, but it didn’t make her success any less humiliating.

Two months had passed since the assassination attempt. Astaria had been under her father’s desk when he and Tanya had discussed the matter. Karakostas had sworn an oath that he’d had no prior knowledge of the assassin and didn’t know the person responsible for sending her, but Astaria had listened closely to his words, like Tanya had told her to, and saw the the gaps that he’d left in his statements. Saying he didn’t know anything about Vanessa didn’t mean that he had been unaware of an attempt on Tanya’s life, only that he hadn’t been told who was going to be responsible for the deed. And saying that he didn’t know who sent her was still a true statement if he’d planted the idea of killing Tanya in the heads of multiple people.

Tanya had laughed when she saw Astaria fuming about her father’s deliberate deception later. It was bad enough to make an oath and then try to find ways around it, but to swear one for the express purpose of deception? “Sweetie, you didn’t really think that not breaking your word was the same as not lying?” Tanya had teased. “People lie with the truth all the time, and I’m not just talking about the fae, though they could teach a master class on it. It’s only adorable little dragon girls that try to be honest and forthright when they don’t have to be. It’s one of the reasons I love you so much, Delphy, but it really is a habit you should try to break. For your own good, if nothing else.”

The second largest consequence of Vanessa’s attack had been additional security systems within the section of the Paradisium that had already been cordoned off for Paragon, systems that went well beyond what was used for the rest of the domain. Karakostas had bristled at her requests, especially her insistence that not even Paradisium security receive unfettered access, but the attack had happened under his own roof and to someone who was technically still an honored guest. Tanya had made it clear to him that if he didn’t agree, she’d make sure everyone knew that the dragon was a dishonorable host who couldn’t be bothered to keep his guests safe.

The assassin herself had become a regular fixture of Tanya’s bedroom for a brief time. Even in her wretched state, Tanya still found ways to humiliate the woman further, like leaving Vanessa alone for the day upside down with her head buried in the toilet, or somehow producing a list of the family members of some of Vanessa’s victims and their phone numbers, and making the woman apologize to each of them on speaker phone. Vanessa had occasionally resorted to threats of violence or pleas for mercy, but by the time she’d been there for a full week, there seemed to be nothing left of her but meek obedience.

  
“That’s it, Delphy,” Tanya breathed. “That’s the spot, keep lapping right there with that soft tongue of yours… just like that… just like that… oh, you wonderful green haired beauty…!” She shivered and came as Astaria gulped down her juices and kept licking, teasing the sensitive flesh to draw out the girl’s orgasm. “Ahhhhhhhh…” Tanya breathed out eventually, her body becoming limp and relaxed. “God, I have the best assistant in the world. I’d call you the best sexy green dragon subby in the world too, Delphy, and you are, but how many of those could there be? Seven? Eight?”

That was the largest consequence of the attempt on Tanya’s life, at least from Astaria’s perspective. She had demanded that the Paradisium show its remorse for its inability to offer adequate protection by supplying her with an assistant, and she’d been very explicit that there was only one person acceptable for the role. To say that Karakostas had been displeased with the idea of sharing his daughter and private toilet was an understatement, but they’d worked out an arrangement where he still had priority on Astaria’s ownership and could make use of her whenever and however he liked, but when he was busy with other matters she could be put to use by Tanya.

At first, she’d expected that the new arrangement would just mean getting raped by Tanya more often, and it was true that they were now having sex more than ever, but… things were different. The girl still never asked for Astaria’s consent, but whenever the dragon wasn’t in the mood for it, such as after a particularly painful session with her father or when she was feeling buried under the weight of everything, Tanya would know without saying and not touch her. They’d talk instead, or read, or play a game with Nami. Sometimes Astaria would arrive at Tanya’s quarters utterly exhausted and find that the bed was already set up for her to sleep in.

And the rest of the time, when they did have sex… Astaria knew rationally that what they were doing together was still rape. Tanya was in a position of power over her, and the dragon was captive to her will. A single word could have her executed or worse. In a situation like this, true consent was impossible. But that wasn’t what it felt like. It wasn’t the threat of punishment that made Astaria crawl into the woman’s bed, or the promise of cooperation and assistance in the future. Deep down, she couldn’t deny that the biggest reason she was there was because she wanted to be.

It was all unbelievably pleasant and indescribably terrifying. Astaria’s life as a slave had been brutally simple until now: people used her and made her suffer. Being treated almost like an actual lover was alien to her, and that was before taking into consideration who it was that was showering her in such kindness… Tanya must have an ulterior motive for it, that much the dragon was well aware of, but what? Seduction seemed pointless when she could already force Astaria to do whatever she wanted. But genuine affection was even more implausible. Why would the woman who’d gleefully murdered her own sibling want to treat her with real kindness? And how far had Astaria had fallen, that even knowing it was all a lie, she couldn’t help but feel gratitude?

“Alright, Delphy,” Tanya said, and the dragon woman gasped as the vibrator was turned up to its max setting. “Let’s squeeze one more out of you, and we’ll go have ourselves some breakfast.” She rolled Astaria onto her side and embraced her, alternating warm kisses and playful bites on her breasts while her finger hooked into the dragon’s clit ring to tug and twist it. The sharp intermingling of pain and pleasure was so familiar to the green haired woman by now that it was difficult to tell them apart when she was like this. “You just let me know when you want it.”

That was Tanya’s latest game, and Astaria wished that she hated it. The girl wouldn’t simply force her to orgasm whether she wanted it or not anymore. She would just bring Astaria all the way up to the brink and keep her there, putting her divine powers of precognition to obscene use. The dragon would remain trapped in a state of blissful agony until she begged Tanya to let her cum, and as if that wasn’t enough, Tanya’s opinion of what constituted as proper begging seemed to grow worse every time.

Astaria didn’t bother trying to resist what was happening. She knew that she was helpless against Tanya, no matter how much she hated that fact, and pretending otherwise would be dishonorable. More importantly, though it made her cheeks grow hot to admit it even to herself… she wanted to cum. It had been a while since her last and the vibrator had been teasing her the whole time since and… and making Tanya finish had only gotten her more worked up. “Please let your favorite dragon slut cum, mistress,” she murmured.

That had been humiliating enough to satisfy Tanya last time, but Astaria wasn’t surprised when the girl giggled. “We both know you can do better than that, Delphy! Put some heart into it, let me really feel what a good little subby you are!” She closed her mouth around one of Astaria’s nipples and sucked on it hard, then nibbled on the sensitive bud.

“I… I want to cum hard for my mistress,” Astaria tried as her back arched under the girl’s attention. “Like a, a good little subby.”

Tanya gave a disappointed tsk of her tongue. “Here, I know what will help.” She shifted to put her face directly in front of Astaria’s. “Keep your eyes on mine, Delphy. That’s it. If you look away, I’m going to stop, okay? I’ll turn off the vibrator, untie you, and you’ll have to wait until later to finish. You have to keep looking at me if you want to cum.”

Astaria knew that she shouldn’t. Tanya Petrov was a rapist and a murderer and so many other terrible things, and there shouldn’t be anything pleasant about being in her bed. Three months ago she would have looked away without hesitation. Two months ago she would’ve looked away with a pang of regret. But now… she stared into Tanya’s soft reddish brown eyes, trying to see into the soul behind them. Why was the girl doing all this to her? Was it all just one big game, to see how far she could make the dragon sink? Did some twisted part of Tanya genuinely care about her, and this was the only way she could express it? “I want to cum,” she whispered.  
  
“I know you do,” Tanya whispered back. Astaria felt a flash of shameful disappointment when the girl eased the vibrator out of her, but it was immediately replaced by her gentle probing fingers, stroking and caressing and occasionally scratching all the right places to make the dragon shiver and moan. “Because you’re a good girl. **My** good girl. Kitkat may think he owns you, but he only cares about your body. You’re just a machine to him, one that he thinks he can prime with sex and pain until it’s ready to start churning out dragon babies for him. He doesn’t appreciate the beautiful, kind, courageous girl inside. But I do. I want to own that soul of yours, Delphy. I want to pamper you and spoil you and see you crawl behind me everywhere I go like a good pup. I want to feel your warm tongue eager and hungry between my legs while I taste your sweet quivering insides on my own.”

Astaria came hard then, but it wasn’t from Tanya’s questing fingers, as wonderful as they felt. It was the promise of domination and submission that pushed her over the edge, and even as she shuddered in ecstasy, she kept her eyes fixed on Tanya’s, holding her mistress’s gaze as she finished.

Once the rush of pleasure had faded, it was followed by the familiar hot queasiness of guilt, but that was growing smaller every time. She didn’t know if her submissive nature was something that Tanya had instilled into her, or merely something buried in her all along that the girl had brought to the surface. It didn’t really matter. Either way, Astaria was who she was now, and when Tanya took the vibrator and held it up to the dragon’s lips, it felt only natural to swallow it up and start sucking it clean.

Once she was finished, Tanya untied her and led her to the kitchen so she could start cooking breakfast. The girl cracked a few eggs and put them in a skillet, humming softly as she worked. “Hmm?” she said when she saw Astaria looking over at Nami’s closed door. “She’s still out, had a sleepover with some friends.” She rolled her eyes. “Not like **that**. Geez, Delphy, get your mind out of the gutter! Qacha’s got a couple little girls, six and eight. They think Nami is pretty much the bestest friend ever - and they’re not wrong - and invited her to dinner and a sleepover. She’ll be back in a few hours and tell you allllll about it, I promise.”

Astaria relaxed. Qacha was one of the Paradisium’s servants, a matronly woman with a sunny disposition who came by the lab a couple times a week to clean up. Like most of the Paradisium’s servants, she lived in the main building somewhere on the second or third floor. Astaria had never met her children, but if they were anything like their mother, she could be sure they were good friends to Nami.

  
It had now been two months since Astaria had first met the strange gumiho, and she was no closer to understanding what Tanya’s larger purpose was for her either. Her fear of Nami had completely vanished, though; it was difficult to spend much time with the girl and not come away from it finding her adorable. She’d only seen Nami in her fox form a few times, usually in the lab when Tanya was running tests with her marble, but even that appearance had become less frightening. A fox she may be, but Nami’s countenance made Astaria think of her more as a cheerful puppy when she was on four legs. And while the dragon couldn’t make heads or tails of Tanya’s research and experiments, whatever she’d done to strengthen the shell of Nami’s marble and prevent the cravings for human flesh seemed to be working.

One thing that had become clear about Tanya and Nami was that the dark haired girl either genuinely cared about her charge, or she was the greatest and most dedicated actress Astaria had ever seen. There was always something different to her behavior when she interacted with Nami; around everyone else, even Astaria, there was a certain stiffness to Tanya’s behavior, like she’d entered the conversation with a goal to achieve.When she was around the fox girl, though, something in her relaxed and her behavior felt far more natural.

A small gray fox wandered meekly into the kitchen to nuzzle Tanya’s leg. Unlike Nami, she had only a single tail, and it no longer had the prehensile flexibility of a kitsune’s. Tanya smiled a little and scratched the fox’s head with one hand while she poured some milk into the pan. “Good morning, Nessie,” she said pleasantly. “I’ll fix you some breakfast too in a minute.”

Astaria hadn’t known what Tanya’s ultimate plans for the assassin were, and hadn’t been eager to find out, so she had been caught completely by surprise when she’d come to Tanya’s quarters a week later to find the fox curled up on the floor. The dragon had thought Tanya even more insane than usual to give the assassin a fox marble, until she’d learned the details of the arrangement.

By most standards, the marble in Vanessa would be considered a dud. It contained no real power, and its user couldn’t even transform with it. Tanya had been gleeful about demonstrating to Astaria how it was a new type that she’d developed specifically for Akemi: a marble that could only be activated and deactivated remotely. “Pillow, fox,” she’d said happily as she used the remote to force the woman to transform back and forth. “Pillow, fox. Pillow, fox. Pillow… would you like to stick with this one, Nessie? Keep being my favorite soft, plush fleshlight? No? Then give me a happy little yip. That’s the spirit! Back to fox.”

If Tanya had done something like that at the beginning, Astaria was certain that Vanessa would’ve begun immediately scheming on ways to use her newfound mobility to escape or seek revenge, regardless of her form’s limited capabilities. But after a week of being the dark haired girl’s toy, the former assassin had no intention of ever returning to that life, especially after Tanya had divulged what her final plans for the woman would be. “Four years ago she was hired to kill the son of this big time yakuza boss,” she’d explained to Astaria. “Now, people like them know what’s what, and they wouldn’t have held a grudge on her for just doing her job, except that she also killed the son’s wife and kids in the process, and that’s a real no no. Even the rival gang that hired her was real pissed off at what happened, because it made them look like a bunch of clowns.

“The good news for Nessie is that her new owners will know just what to do with limbless fuckdolls, especially when they’re big beautiful blondes. She’ll be a real busy girl right from day one: starring in a bunch of underground fetish videos, getting whored out left and right to the kind of men interested in enjoying something like her, and of course being a regular punching bag and fleshlight to fifty different yakuza gangsters. You **sure** you want to keep being a fox?” she’d asked Vanessa. “It sounds like you’d be having a ton of fun with them. No?” The fox’s only response had been a series of whimpers.

Once Tanya had gotten bored of tormenting Vanessa by switching her back randomly, often making her beg profusely to be allowed to be a fox again, she’d transformed her a final time and then gotten to work. Astaria still didn’t understand exactly how the kitsune or vulpan could talk while in bestial form, but after Tanya performed surgery on her vocal cords, it was a skill Vanessa no longer possessed. After that, Tanya had removed eight of her nine tails and begun making modifications with a scalpel until the remaining one moved much more stiffly. With that done, she had completed her transition from human woman to ordinary fox, albeit one with a slightly longer, more elegant tail.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you earlier,” Tanya said while she grabbed some slices of bread and popped them in the toaster before getting back to work on the pan. “I got everything taken care of with Nessie’s new owners. We’re shipping her out tomorrow afternoon.”

Astaria hadn’t heard anything at all about this before, and from the way Vanessa suddenly stiffened, neither had she. The gray fox whimpered and began lapping at Tanya’s bare feet. “So you changed your mind?” the dragon asked cautiously. “You will send her to the yakuza after all?”

“What? Of course not.” Tanya glanced back at her, and then down at Vanessa. “Did I seriously not tell either of you?” She shook her head. “I am too busy by half. Can barely keep things straight anymore. You know what I was doing just before you got here this morning, Delphy? Calling a **plumber**. Who’d have guessed my grand schemes would involve unclogging a sewer pipe on the off chance that… ugh, whatever. No, Nessie, you’re not going back to being a fuckpillow. You can thank Delphy for that, by the way. Only reason you’re getting off this easy is because my silly girl feels like she’s partly responsible for you.”

The scrambled eggs were sizzling by now, and she took them off the heat and started divvying them up onto three plates. “You are in fact headed to a very nice wildlife refuge in Western Europe that specializes in endangered foxes. It’s got hills you can run around on, and rivers, and all that other nature stuff for you to enjoy. Easily one of the best places in the world to be for a fox. And not a single person there knows that there’s anything special to you.”  
  
“And what is the catch?” Astaria asked warily.

  
“Who said there was a catch?” Tanya asked innocently. Astaria kept staring at her silently until the dark haired girl gave in and giggled. “Alright, alright, I was going to let Nessie find out for herself when she got there, but like I said, the place specializes in **endangered** foxes. And what’s the best way to keep to stop a species from being endangered?” The toast popped up from the toaster, and she buttered them and added them to the plates.

“Breeding,” the dragon said flatly.

“And lots of it,” Tanya confirmed. She wrapped one plate up in cellophane before putting it in the fridge, set the other two on the table, and then opened a tin of wet dog food and put it into Vanessa’s food bowl on the floor. “I don’t actually know if foxes can impregnate a vulpan, but I’m sure Nessie’s new furry friends are gonna try and try and try.”

Astaria had heard enough stories of the former assassin’s kills by now that she couldn’t muster a great deal of sympathy for the woman regarding the fate in store for her. And as someone who had never once had the opportunity to leave the Paradisium, it was hard to see the promise of a life spent outdoors in relative freedom as an overly harsh punishment. Vanessa was intelligent enough to know that too, but that didn’t seem to make her any happier about the idea of spending the rest of her life mating with animals. She whined softly, looking up at the girl.

“Don’t give me that,” Tanya said cheerfully as she sat down and began to eat from her plate. “I’ll make you a promise, Nessie: there’s a certain fox out there, right this very minute, who would give just about anything to trade places with you…”

*********

Hanabi laid flat on her back, looking up the ceiling of one of the destroyed homes. For the first few minutes, she’d wondered what sorts of gods had looked at this same ceiling in the past, but that line of thinking had soon grown dull. It was just chipped marble, covered with dust and cobwebs, lit only by the faint starlight coming in through the windows.

She knew she should get up. The sun had just finished setting and there were still so many things to do: scrounge around for materials for a makeshift bed, satisfy her hunger pangs with some of the fruit from the orchard, track down a source of fresh water. And those were just to satisfy the immediate concerns of her body. She should also be searching this fallen sanctuary for clues about what happened, gathering any useful resources that she could sneak back into Hanei, working out a plan to help the others… So much to do, and she couldn’t bring herself to do any of it. Even just standing up seemed like far too much work.

She’d cried for a little while, and could still feel the dried tear tracks on her cheeks. She’d done everything that she was supposed to. She’d hidden herself from the invaders, she’d retrieved her foxskin, she’d survived the soldier who’d pursued her, and she’d found her way into the sanctuary. By all rights that should’ve been the end of her quest. But it had all been meaningless. Her people were still captives, and she had no way to save them. She’d done everything she’d set out to do and still managed to fail miserably.

Half a day had passed since she’d arrived. The ruins were deceptively large, spanning a several mile diameter that dwarfed Hanei. She’d only searched a tiny fraction of the place so far, looking inside every building and wearing her voice out calling for help, with absolutely no result. This place was as empty and dead as she felt inside right now. Couldn’t they at least have left her, like, a magic sword, or a spell book, or a set of audio recordings that conveniently explained what had happened, or **something**? Just one tiny little thing to tell her that this hadn’t been a waste of time. Just one.

She’d gotten her hopes up when she’d seen the first brazier, its golden lining making it stand out from the marble. She’d encountered several more, eight in total, all spaced equally around the outskirts of the settlement. She’d felt something radiating from all of them. It wasn’t like what she’d felt from Inari’s Flame, but it wasn’t **not** like it either. But though they were still piled full of coals, they’d contained none of the inner heat that Inari’s Flame did, and her attempts to relight them failed. Neither real fire nor foxfire had the slightest effect on them.

Hanabi had spent an entire hour examining one of them, telling herself that this had to be the clue she needed. It seemed too perfect a coincidence to be anything but purposeful. But it was just an unlit brazier. If there was some trick to lighting it, it was lost on her, and there was nothing but her own desperation that suggested it was anything useful in the first place. Maybe the gods that lived here had just been too old-fashioned for electric lights. Maybe they were off because there was a magic freaking circuit breaker somewhere that needed to be tripped. She didn’t know, and she had no way to find out.

There was nothing useful here. Nothing at all. Just dead ends, more questions without answers, and decaying tombs to unknown gods. Hanabi wasn’t sure if she even wanted to get up. What if she just laid here until it was all over? No one would come and hurt her here, and it would be a more peaceful death than the others got. They wouldn’t blame her for giving up, right? Not after she’d tried to hard to help them. They’d understand. None of them could have really expected someone like her to be of any use anyway.

Some part of her was horrified at these thoughts. She couldn’t just quit here! There had to be something she could do, like returning to Hanei and bringing some of the others back. Even if she could only rescue one other person, that would make this worth it. And she still had all the unclaimed foxskins. Right now there were dozens of kitsune slowly dying out there, but their skins could save them. Hanabi tried to push aside her lethargy and stand up, but she couldn’t.

She wasn’t just tired or depressed; she was **stuck**.

Panic began to set in as she realized that she really couldn’t move. She wasn’t being pinned down or bound by anything, her body just refused to obey her commands. And even as her eyes darted around in terror, trying to see what was going on, the sense of ennui was pressing on her mind. She should go to sleep, that’s what she should do. Just close her eyes and… Hanabi tried to scream, but her vocal cords were as paralyzed as the rest of her. Her eyelids slowly closed of their own volition, trapping her in darkness. Her thoughts became fuzzy, jumbled.

What was she doing here? Where was she? She could figure those things out in the morning, if she ever woke up. Hanabi struggled, but it was like her mind was being wrapped in soft dark cotton, and she couldn’t hold onto her train of thought. Her consciousness slipped away from her, and there was only the darkness.

**********

Hanabi woke to find one of her eyes open. She tried to close it and return to oblivion, but it still didn’t obey. She stared dully at the creature in front of her as it pried open her other eye as well. Its fingers rubbed something sticky across her eyelid, and it became as immobile as the other. “Much better,” the thing said, putting something behind her head to prop it up and let her see forward. “It is good to let the pet see. It is only right that she know the face of her new masters.” It was still nighttime, but the starlight was enough for her sharp eyes to make out the creature clearly: naked, with pallid yellow skin, bulging eyes, and stubby, gnarled fingers. Its body was shaped weirdly and hung in odd ways, shifting and flowing from moment to moment as though it wasn’t solid, just a bag of liquid full to bursting.

Terror clawed its way to the front of her mind, overcoming her sleepiness, as the creature pushed her legs apart. His cock was a fat, ugly thing as misshapen as the rest of it, riddled with bumps and bulges, some of them trickling pus. “So lucky we are,” he crooned as he rubbed his member over her slit. “All alone for so long, and now so many new visitors. But you will be ours first, pet. We will not share you with the others until we have tasted all your sweetness for ourselves.” The white haired girl tried to scream, with as little success as before.

Sharp pain lanced through her as the creature penetrated her. The way its many lumps rubbed against her walls was both agonizing and disgusting. They felt smoother and more fragile than flesh, like slick bubbles of stretched skin, and she could feel the hot pus inside them, just below the surface. “She is soft inside,” he said happily. “Soft and warm. I will make this hole my new home, pet.” He leaned back and pulled her with him, until he was the one on his back and she was draped over him, his cock still pulsing inside of her.

Her face was only inches above his, and his breath smelled like rot. Even without conscious control of her body, she gagged when he drew closer and kissed her. His tongue was rough like a cat’s, longer than a human or fox’s, and covered in some kind of slime too thick to be saliva. He explored the insides of her mouth, licking at her cheeks and teeth and caressing her own tongue, forcing her to taste that sickly sweet slime. When she realized that it was the same pus she’d seen leaking from them before, she gagged again.

“Do not fear, pet,” said a new voice, and Hanabi was horrified to realize that a second creature was right behind her. “We were once named nightmare, but for you, we will be lovers.” His cock began to push against her anal ring. “Once you have been trained, you will weep when none of us are inside you. But you will be a happy pet, for moments like those will be as rare as the sun upon your face. We will love you and love you and love you, and you will live with us in the quiet dark places, and you will never be lonely again.”

The white haired girl stared helplessly at the nightmare violating her mouth and pussy, unable to even shut her eyes against the horror, while the other’s cock began to penetrate her last untouched bastion. Even Levi hadn’t taken her back there. Pain and nausea competed for her attention as she was sandwiched between the two abominations. She felt like she was being split in two by the anal invader, and the way it rubbed up against the other made both feel worse. This is what happens, she told herself. This is what happens when you lie to yourself and pretend you’re anything more than a fucktoy.

“You are so tight for me,” said the one in her ass. “Thank you, pet. Soon all your holes will relax and smile as they drool with our love, but for now this one is fresh and snug, and I will savor it. You and I will spend years and years pleasuring each other with this hole, but long after you have become dust and bone I will still be here, remembering how beautifully it gripped me this very first time.” Fully seated in her now, he began slowly pumping her insides, his pace quickening with each stroke.

“Have no fear for the death that will come,” said the other. “Your life will be long and full and so very busy. By the time you pass, you will have long forgotten what the wind and sun feel like. You will know of nothing but the darkness and our love, and you will thank us when you feel our teeth upon you at last. They always do.” He felt like he’d grown even bigger since he’d entered her. His cock now filled her completely, kissing her cervix with its length and stretching her out with its girth

“And you will leave behind a legacy,” said the one behind her. His bulbous head would pull back until only the very tip was being squeezed by her anal ring, a breath away from being out of her completely, and then he would drive back in with a single thrust, not stopping until his balls slapped against her pussy lips. Every time it felt like he made it in deeper, until his head seemed to be reaching her stomach. “You will bear us a thousand thousand young in your time. Yes, even you, Servant of the Gods, our pet kitsune. Our love is not like the others. It will froth and squirm and crawl inside you.”

  
“And no matter what hole it is in, it will take root,” added the one raping her pussy. “It cares little for eggs and wombs. It will chew hungrily through your flesh to make itself a body, and you will cry out so happily to feel a new life being created. The ones who came to us a few days ago, already they grow heavy with children. Already they weep for the beauty flourishing inside them.” Tears were pouring from her own eyes now too, and not just from the terror and despair gripping her. The room was full of dust, and her eyes burned painfully as they were unable to blink away any of it.

It wasn’t just her imagination: Hanabi was certain now that their cocks were growing as they raped her. The nightmare beneath her pressed insistently at the entrance to her womb on each thrust, not content to remain outside, while the tunnel itself felt like she was already giving birth. He grinned at as he continued to taunt her, holding her head so that she couldn’t break off eye contact with him. The nightmare above her was sinking impossibly deep into her every time, and her sensation of his head breaching her stomach was no longer hyperbole. His hands were crushing her breasts, using them as nothing more than convenient leverage for pounding her.

“But do not worry,” continued the one beneath her. “Your womb will not go unappreciated. It will be a perfect fit for me. Your master will be so happy when your precious womb is gripping his head, begging him to fill it full of his love. You will be such a good pet when that happens.”

“And your ass is already so affectionate and eager to please,” said the other. He patted it condescendingly. “Such good behavior will be dearly rewarded. It will drink deep of my love soon. It will drink it again and again before I ever pull out.”

They were both disgusting, terrifying monsters that seemed to be deriving at least as much enjoyment from her distress and pain as they were from her body. And she was going to bear their children. It was a new horror that not even Levi and his men had produced. To be their broodmare, used for only their pleasure and their children… it made her want to puke. But she couldn’t even frown at them. She was more helpless than she’d ever been, with no avenues whatsoever to fight back or to escape.

Except… that wasn’t quite true, was it? Most of her had resigned itself to her fate. After all, she’d known that she was just a worthless fucktoy for days now. All the running around couldn’t change that. But as similar as this felt to the rapes she’d endured before, there was a key difference, a sliver of hope to cling to: she had her foxfire. Could she even use it while paralyzed like this? She had no idea, but she was going to find out.

Her usual tricks and pranks would be useless. These nightmares knew what she was, and she couldn’t imagine any ploy that would convince them to stop raping her and leave. She had to do something more with her power, had to figure out a way to use it as a weapon. Like by making a gun that she couldn’t fire, or a sword that she couldn’t swing. She tried to shake away her pessimism and think. She’d started to get sleepy after night had fallen, and these things kept talking about bringing her with them into darkness. Could they have a weakness to light?

Calling upon her foxfire without being able to move her body was like trying to sing a song with a numb mouth. She didn’t technically need her muscles to let it flow out of her, but she was so used to them being part of the process. The nightmare raping her from behind had wrapped one of her tails around his waist, and she tried to focus on the tip of it. She’d done this a million times, she reminded herself. It didn’t matter if her tail couldn’t move, she just had to let the foxfire flow through it like normal…

It took a few tries and far too much of her reserves, but at last Hanabi saw the room brighten. She couldn’t turn her head to see it, but she knew there was a ball of light behind her, banishing the nearby shadows and bathing her and the nightmares in its rays. And… it was doing absolutely nothing. “Is the pet afraid of the dark?” asked the one behind her with mock concern. “She will learn to love it soon, I promise. Beneath this place lies our home, in tunnels where not a drop of sunlight or starlight can be found. You will never need use your eyes again, pet. Perhaps we will make them food when we get there, so you will be more comfortable. You will live in the cold and serene darkness, feeling us, tasting us, hearing us, smelling us. All around you and all inside you, until the day of your end.”

Decades or more living in total darkness. Unable to move a muscle, unable to see a thing, unable to speak. Decades of utter helplessness while being raped and bred by disgusting creatures that would mock and insult her as they enjoyed her. The white haired girl was racked with terror at the idea. She’d thought being Levi’s fucktoy was the worst fate in the world, but this might just be worse. At least Levi would’ve probably gotten bored with her after a few years and killed her. Maybe she shouldn’t even be wasting her foxfire on stupid ideas like generating light. What if she killed herself with it? There had to be a way to do that, right? Something quick, maybe even painless? She didn’t want to die, but no one would call the future that was waiting for her ‘living’.

Hanabi struggled to beat back the despair. So light hadn’t worked. Maybe she just hadn’t gone far enough. She’d created the illusion of light, the shape without the reality. She needed to make actual sunlight. If that didn’t scare these monsters off, nothing would. Much easier said than done, though. She’d never even tried to craft sunlight, and right now even the most basic illusions felt like trying to sew clothing while wearing winter mittens. But it wasn’t as though she had much choice. It was this or- she gagged suddenly as something poked the bottom of her esophagus. No, no, they couldn’t… she gagged again as it found purchase and began sliding up her throat. Her glued eyes stared holes into the nightmare beneath her, and his wide grin told her he knew exactly what she was feeling.

The cockhead of the nightmare behind her burst from her throat, large enough that it bulged inside her mouth and forced it open, dislocating her jaw. “Don’t worry, pet,” he breathed into her ear, tone dripping with cheerful malice, “my love will all go into your sweet guts. I just wanted to enjoy the fullness of you while it’s all still so tight.” The white haired girl kept gagging, unable to breathe. But that horrifying, impossible sensation of being completely spitroasted on his cock didn’t hold all of her attention for long, not when the other nightmare succeeded in bashing his way through her cervix. If she could have screamed, Hanabi would have shattered all glass within a mile as her entire womb was brutally stretched, the nightmare’s head swelling up like a balloon as soon as it was inside. Both of the nightmares laughed at her as her body involuntarily shuddered and twitched. “Such a delightful pet! You will amuse us for centuries, kitsune.”

Sunlight. Sh-she had to… Hanabi could barely think through the agony and sheer humiliation. Sunlight, sunlight… she reached for it in her mind, trying to coax it into being. The ball of light behind her flickered and danced as she poured more foxfire into it wildly, becoming firelight, moonlight, electric light. It wasn’t enough. “Is the pet ready for our love?” one of the nightmares crooned. “There will be much pain, but pain is always a part of love.” The glow of a streetlight, a headlight, a spotlight. “Do not fear for your masters: there will be no pain for them. Only joy as they breed their new pet for the very first time.” Lamplight, candlelight. Both monsters were pulsing wildly inside her, seconds from shooting off, one with his head back in her guts just as promised, the other still defiling her womb. Torchlight, starlight.

Sunlight.

Both creatures screamed in agony as sizzling filled the air. At the same time, all of Hanabi’s lethargy vanished. She wrenched herself away from them, kicking and punching and thrashing with her tails. As soon as she had enough distance she transformed and sprang back at them. Their flesh was as soft and fragile as it had felt, and rent easily under her claws. Beneath the skin she found no blood or bone or muscle, just more yellow pus that sizzled and boiled under the sunlight. They tried to flee, but she had no intention of letting them escape, and savagely tore into them.

Within seconds, their illusion of solidity had crumbled completely. What was left of their skin laid abandoned and in pieces as their true liquid forms, now reduced to puddles on the floor, writhed and bubbled. The foul smelling slime flowed across the floor towards the exit, seeking the safety of darkness, but she followed after, not letting them have any relief from the punishing sunlight.

And then it was over. The foul smell still lingered in the air, and discarded bits of the flesh they’d wrapped themselves in were strewn across the floor, but there was nothing left of the pus slimes. Hanabi slumped against one wall, shaking and hurting and still terrified. The ball of sunlight required constant effort to maintain, but she didn’t dare let up. If she let it go away, that paralysis might return, and she was certain that there were many more of those creatures out there.

She should leave. It wasn’t even a question. The temple was a much safer place than this. Hell, she’d even consider Levi’s bed over this if it was a choice between the two. She was burning foxfire faster than she was regaining it to keep the sunlight going, but it would last long enough to get her back to the beach. She could come back here when the sun rose again. And when she did, maybe she’d spend more than just an hour examining those golden braziers. She had a feeling that “magical source of light” and “horrible monsters that love darkness” were not entirely unrelated.

There was just two problems with her plan to leave. The first was that the nightmares had mentioned other captives. Hanabi had no idea who they could be. It probably wasn’t Levi’s men; if he knew about this place, there’s no way he would’ve let the temple go unguarded. But it was possible that other kitsune had escaped through the door before she had. Whoever they were, right now they were being tortured by literal nightmares, experiencing a hell even worse than the one she’d just escaped.

The second problem was that the nightmares had also revealed where their captives were. Which meant that if Hanabi was feeling stupid and suicidal and in the mood to get gangraped for centuries, she could go try and rescue them. It would’ve been so much easier if she didn’t know where they were. Then she would have been able to justify abandoning them. But instead, she had the power to do something about it, and she was possibly the only person in the world who could truly appreciate the horrors they were going through right now.

It was times like these that she wished she had less of a conscience.

Finding the entrance to the underground tunnels wasn’t difficult. She’d found a dry well while exploring the ruins earlier that day. At the time, she’d considered exploring the bottom of it, but had concluded that even if there was something down there, it wasn’t the best idea to go running around in an underground area that no one had maintained for ages and might be one foolish kitsune away from collapsing. Now that she knew what she would have found down there, she was plenty grateful for her earlier caution. Not that it was going to mean much in the long run, probably.

Just as she’d expected, there were several tunnels waiting for her at the bottom. Hanabi considered her options, already aware of the strain on her foxfire. She couldn’t afford to dismiss the sunlight, and not just because she was certain her paralysis would return the moment she did; even in her fox form, she needed **some** light to see by. But just running around with it out in the open was a real good way to draw attention, and while the nightmares weren’t too tough individually, there could be hundreds down here and she was just a single fox. If they overwhelmed her and broke her concentration, no more sunlight for her. Of any kind, forever.

So she’d compromised. She was generating ordinary light all around her in very, **very** small quantity, just barely within the extremes of her night vision. She had to hope that the nightmares’ eyes were poorer than hers, and wouldn’t notice any of it. She didn’t dare make it sunlight, afraid that it would affect them even if they couldn’t see it. No, the tiny ball of sunlight was now a small warmth inside her mouth. Even hidden behind her jaws, having its light on her skin was enough to ward her from the darkness.

Of course, performing either feat of foxfire would have been strenuous on its own, and doing both at once was ridiculously draining. She needed to get in, rescue the prisoners, and get out, and she needed to do it without wasting time. Hanabi sniffed the air. She could smell the nightmares’ presence in every direction, but it was particularly strong down one tunnel. That was where the captives would be. She bounded down it as quickly as she could without losing control of the cloak. The path branched multiple times, but her nose always told her the right way to go. She really, really hoped she’d be able to find her way back as easily.

After a few minutes, she began to hear sounds as well: the voices and laughter of nightmares coupled with the slapping of flesh against flesh. It was familiar enough for her stomach to do flip-flops, and for a few seconds the desire to just turn around and run in the other direction was almost unbearable. But she couldn’t. She wanted to - **Goddess** , did she want to - but she couldn’t. She crept forward instead, after double and triple checking that all traces of her presence should be hidden.

There were just two women down there, and Hanabi stopped short at the sight of them. She didn’t recognize either one of them. One of them was an American dressed in blue jeans cut off at the knee and a red t-shirt that matched her boyish hair, though the jeans had been tugged down along with her underwear and now dangled off one ankle, and the shirt had been torn down the middle to expose her breasts. She looked a little older than her companion, but her arms and legs were all lean muscle.

She was in a sitting position, her legs splayed, with a nightmare beneath her. His cock was buried in her asshole, and his twisted hands were on her hips, happily bouncing her up and down on his shaft. Another nightmare stood in front of her, eagerly slapping her head against his crotch. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, and it looked like she couldn’t breathe. Most horrifying of all, though, was her swollen pregnant belly. It bulged in an unnatural, lumpy way, and the contents were visibly shifting beneath her skin.

The other woman was Asian, and Hanabi would’ve guessed Japanese specifically, though what little was left of the green and white dress she wore was definitely Korean. Her hair was also red and fell down to her shoulders. Most striking of all, though, was the red fox ears and the four red tails that hung limply behind her. Hanabi had never heard of a kitsune with four tails before, although thanks to the recent violence, she’d seen people in Hanei with even fewer.

The Japanese woman looked as pregnant as the other as she was lifted face-up into the air by two nightmares. She was also being raped orally and anally. One held her up by the legs while the other held her by the hair, and they swung her back and forth between them. Their movements were less cooperative and more like two people engaged in a tug of war; each nightmare would violently yank her onto his cock, only for the other to haul her back just as aggressively, fighting over who got to be inside of her. Her belly and breasts swung pendulously as she was pushed and pulled.

Surrounding both women were easily dozens more nightmares, cheerfully discussing and laughing about their captives’ plight. “Such a greedy pet, that one,” said one of them, indicating the American. “Always always demanding air. Passes out so easily.”

“No, no, she is a good pet,” insisted the one raping her mouth. “She is greedy for air, yes, but more greedy for her masters’ cock.” He shifted his grip to stick his thumbs in her mouth, stretching her lips open in a crude grin. “See how she smiles while I feed her? She will happily pass out as many times as it takes if it means the taste of my cock on her tongue and more warm love in her stomach, won’t she?” He nodded her head up and down for her. “Cute, obedient, cock gobbling pet.”

“You think that one is greedy for cock?” asked the nightmare raping the Japanese woman’s ass. He let go of one leg long enough to smack her butt cheek. “This one’s asshole is far worse. Hear how it sucks on me, how it begs and begs me to never leave? I almost weep every time I paint her guts with my love, knowing how much her hole will miss me when I’m gone. It’s why I fuck this hole more than any of the others. Ass then mouth. Ass then cunt. Always ass first before I give my love to any other hole.”

“Ah, such a kind master you are,” congratulated one of the spectators. “She is a lucky pet to have you there to keep her guts filled and happy.”

Both womens’ stomachs rumbled, and all the nightmares perked up with excitement. “It is time, it is time,” said one of them. “Who will do the honors? Who will play midwife to our sweet mommy pets?”

Two of the nightmares stepped up. “Do not worry, dear mommy pets,” one said. “The precious babes inside you are very resilient. This will not hurt them, I promise.” Then he reared back and kicked the American directly in her swollen belly. Her entire body convulsed, and then he did it again. The other nightmare was doing the same to the Japanese woman, driving his fist down into her soft sensitive stomach. Meanwhile, the four nightmares raping them never paused or hesitated in their abuse.

There was a louder rumble, and then pus began to ooze from both pussies, expelled by the blows. They plopped onto the floor into two large quivering piles, both covered in skin so thin it was transparent. The blobs of pus began to writhe, forming limbs and stretching itself into a more humanoid shape. It was like what had happened to the nightmares Hanabi had killed, but in reverse, the pus gaining shape instead of losing it. Within a minute two fully formed nightmares stood.

“Welcome brothers,” said one of the watchers. “Give thanks to the pets that birthed you.”

The two nightmares turned and pounced hungrily on the women, cocks forming at their crotches. They sank into the pussies that they had just come out of, one tackling the American woman, the climbing on top of the Japanese woman, both pounding them with frenzied violence. “Do you see that, mommy pets?” said the man still raping the Japanese woman’s mouth. “Do you see how much your babes love you? Rejoice, for you will have more so very soon. So very…” he groaned and pulled out of her, letting his cock spurt into her gaping mouth. “Yes, taste my love, pet!”

To Hanabi’s revulsion, it wasn’t semen that he was feeding her. It was more of that same pus they were all made out of. She suddenly knew with horrifying certainty what exactly their reproductive cycle entailed. These creatures were just bags filled to the brim with that warm, slimy pus, and they would expel it little by little into their victims. Until there was enough inside her, however many hundreds of loads, to form another nightmare. All of these creatures were constantly recycling themselves, breaking apart and reforming over time. Bags of slimy pus that mixed and recombined endlessly.

The revelation nearly made her throw up, but she managed to keep it together. She didn’t have time to feel sorry for herself right now. She only had a few minutes of foxfire left, and she’d need it to get back to the surface and then to the beach. Running out for even a few seconds before she escaped would mean ending up exactly like those two women. If she was going to help them, it was now or never. Could she **really** not live with herself if she abandoned them? Ugh. No, she couldn’t, as much as she wished otherwise…

The nightmares screamed in unison when she opened her mouth and let the sunlight fill the room. All thoughts of raping the two women had vanished, replaced by the need to escape from the light. Unlike the two she’d killed before, though, this time she couldn’t focus on them and prevent them from getting away. There were far too many of them, and too many avenues they could take to reach darkness. Hanabi could see them reforming just outside the light, staring at her with murderous rage.

“A new pet who plays with fire,” one hissed. “We will have to teach her better.”

“Put away the light, kitsune,” one ordered. “If you do, we will be soft and gentle. We will hold you close and whisper sweet nothings into your ears as we fill you with our love.”  
  
“If you are a naughty pet,” added another, “we cannot spare the rod. Do you know how long you can scream, child of the gods? How long we can keep you in perfect undying agony, begging for our love and forgiveness? We will find out together.”

“We need to get out of here,” Hanabi told the two women, trying to ignore the nightmares’ threats. “Quickly. Can you walk?”

“I can dance a jig if it’ll get me out of this fucking place,” growled the American, who was already staggering to her feet. The Japanese woman was doing the same, but at a much slower pace. “If you know the way out, get moving and we’ll follow.”

“We-” something small and heavy struck the back of Hanabi’s head and the fox grunted in surprise. It wasn’t much of an injury, even without her healing powers. The rock the nightmare had thrown wasn’t sharp, and her fur had absorbed much of the blow. It hadn’t even broken her skin.

But it had broken her concentration. The sunlight vanished.

The first time the supernatural sense of lethargy had touched her, she’d been too distracted to notice it until it was too late. This time she was aware of it washing over her. It was like being submerged in mud. All of her limbs felt impossibly heavy, and even keeping her eyes open was an act that required all her strength. Hanabi held on for less than a second before giving in and flopping to the ground, paralyzed and blind once more. Inside her head, she was frantically reaching for her foxfire, but it wasn’t going to work. She’d been able to slap something together before, but at the cost of almost everything she had. That wouldn’t work a second time, and even if she got lucky and conjured sunlight almost immediately, she’d be too burned out to maintain it

To her surprise, no nightmare took the opportunity to immediately pounce on her. She could hear commotion all around her, but she was being ignored for the time being. It was a mystery she couldn’t afford to dwell on. Hanabi tried to make the most of her good fortune instead. If she could calm down and concentrate, the way she’d always done it in their training, she might be able to generate it for only a fraction of the power. It was like filling a cup slowly from a faucet instead of having to try and fill it from a fire hose point blank.

Calming down was easier said than done. She was surrounded by monsters, and perpetually an instant away from another horrifying gang rape, one that would continue for the rest of her life. But she did her best, trying to relax and picture Hanei as it had been so recently. A place of peace and warmth. And boring. Goddess, did she appreciate how wonderful it was to be bored now. She remembered all the little moments that she’d taken for granted all her life. The books she’d read, the naps she’d taken, the food she’d eaten, the games she’d played. Drinking tea with Tomo. Teasing Tobi. The long walks with Kamio. Watching the sunset with Nobu.

She focused on that last memory, trying to hold one of those sunsets in her mind. Tried to remember not just the sight of it, but the feel, what it was like to stand there basking in its presence, watching the warm colors make silent music in the sky. She took all of that and held it firmly in her mind, and then she poured foxfire into it. Brilliant golden sunlight filled the tunnels.

The oppressive atmosphere vanished and Hanabi opened her eyes. She was lying on her side, and flanked by the two women, who were miraculously still standing. Both of them were exhausted and shaking and covered in the creatures’ disgusting juices and… they’d protected her. The nightmares were already screaming and fleeing the light once more, but she could see their foul pus already splattered over the floors and walls, and many of their shells had been torn to pieces. The sunlight hadn’t done that. Somehow they’d resisted the nightmares’ power and held the entire horde off long enough for her to bring it back. Who **were** these women?

“We have to get out of here,” said the Japanese woman. “Quickly. Lead the way and we’ll protect you.” More rocks came sailing in, but she deftly intercepted them with her tails.

This wasn’t the time for an interview. Hanabi rose to her feet and loped back the way she came. She glanced back a couple times at first, anxious that the other two would fall behind and end up back in the darkness, but neither of them seemed to have any trouble matching her pace. The most nerve wracking part was when she transformed back into her human shape and climbed up the dry well. She could hear the nightmares just below them, scrabbling at the walls as they followed behind, and she was certain that one of them was about to grab an ankle and haul her back down. The sunlight wasn’t instant death to them, and all it would take was a single one brave enough and agile enough to risk it.

But then there was fresh air on her face and they were back among the abandoned buildings. A few of the nightmares continued trailing after them, hoping that her sunlight would vanish before she reached safety, but most remained underground. Hanabi didn’t let her guard down for a moment, though. She’d already witnessed how terrible they were even in small numbers. If she ran out of foxfire and the other two succumbed to the paralysis, a single nightmare would be enough to drag them back into the permanent darkness.

In the end, it was a close thing. The glowing ball began to waver while they were running through the grassy field, the beach still a ways off in the distance. “Can’t… can’t hold it any longer…” Hanabi gasped, winded and worn out from the mad dash.

A red tail encircled her waist and lifted her up in the air. “You have done well,” said the other fox. “We owe you our lives. Leave the rest to us.” Hanabi sagged in her grip as the light flickered out completely, and she saw the other two women flinch as though suddenly shouldering a heavy weight. But while their movements slowed, they didn’t stop, both women powering through it to keep running.

And then they were at the beach and on the marble circle and the dark scenery around them vanished, replaced by the bare hidden alcove within the temple. Hanabi didn’t know if the nightmares could come through the portal after them, and had no interest in finding out, so she put a finger to her lips and slowly swung the hidden door open, wary of any soldiers. But the temple was still deserted, and no alarms were raised as she quietly led the two mysterious strangers to a room with open windows through which the midday sun shined. Hanabi laid down on the floor, basking in the sunbeam. “So… “ she panted, “who the heck are you two?”

The two of them exchanged glances. “I’m Sam,” said the American, “and…” She looked a bit sheepish. “We’re here to help.”


	9. Extinction

“This is fucking bullshit,” growled the woman who’d called herself Sam. She looked like she was about to punch something and she couldn’t sit still, pacing back and forth with her hands clenched. “I swear, the things I’d do for the chance to wrap my hands around Levi’s throat… I’d go take a long vacation with those goddamn pus slimes if I had to!”

“It makes no sense,” said Seo-yun, much more calmly than her companion but still frustrated. “He wasn’t supposed to be here yet. He was supposed to wait until the middle of winter to launch the siege. We should still have weeks to prepare.”

All three of them were still in the temple, keeping an eye on the village below. A patrol had passed by only a few minutes ago, sweeping the entire building to check for any valuables that hadn’t already been destroyed or stolen, but they’d kept out of sight with the aid of Hanabi’s foxfire. In the end, the soldiers hadn’t done much more than vandalize the place; the temple was solid stone, and couldn’t be torn down and destroyed as easily as the houses had. As far as Levi’s army seemed to be concerned, it was just an empty husk to be ignored now.

The room they were in was a storage area for festival decorations, most of which had been crafted before Hanabi was even born. They weren’t fancy or expensive, but they’d all been made with love and care. The sight of those familiar lanterns and boards and banners smashed and torn up and scattered all over the floor was painful; they’d been holding these celebrations for centuries, and now they never would again. Even if the soldiers hadn’t destroyed it all, it would have been useless junk now that Hanei was gone.

The white haired girl had gotten her hopes up when the two strangers had told her that they were here to help, but they’d deflated once she found out what that help actually was: warning Hanei that it was about to be invaded. But as bad as she felt about the poor timing, it was nothing compared to the despair and frustration of the newcomers when they’d discovered that they were too late and seen the state that Hanei had fallen into. “It’s… my fault,” Hanabi said slowly. “That he’s here early. A few days ago, before he showed up here, I… I found him in the woods and… I was able to escape, eventually, and that made him mad. Mad enough to show up here ahead of schedule, I think.” She was such a fucking idiot. If she’d just stayed home like she was supposed to, Levi wouldn’t be here yet, and these two would’ve warned everyone in time.

Her self-loathing must have been clear on her face, because Sam took her hands in her own with surprising gentleness. “You aren’t to blame for anything that motherfucker does,” she said. “Not a single damn thing, do you understand?”

“But-”

“And,” Sam said over her, firmly, “as much as I hate to admit it, even if he hadn’t shown up early our plan was fucked from the beginning. We were the ones who got ourselves captured by those slimes on the way here. We were never gonna be able to warn your people in time. If he’d shown up a month from now, the only real change is that we would’ve spent a month down there in those tunnels before you found us, instead of only a couple days. And even if we hadn’t fucked up and tried to travel through the nexus at night, plan A was to have as many people as possible hide in there. That would have gone over real well.” Hanabi imagined the entire village falling victim to the nightmares and shuddered.

Everything the woman said made sense, but it didn’t banish the guilt from her heart. “Why is he even doing all this anyway?” she asked. “What did we ever do to him?”

“Have you seen that transforming thing that he and his guys can do?” Hanabi nodded, wishing she hadn’t. “They’re called vulpan. Humans that use the… what do you call it? _Yeowu guseul_?” Seo-yun nodded silently. “The _yeowu guseul_ created by gumiho when they eat people. Levi and his messed up family want to create an entire army of them.” Sam glanced back outside. “A even bigger army,” she corrected grimly.  
  
“Wait, are you saying that they’re going to make us eat humans and become gumiho so that we can produce more of those things for them?” Hanabi asked, horrified.

Sam shook her head. “Nah, that was the old method. Two years ago, Paragon - the organization behind Levi - managed to figure out a way to create artificial marbles, courtesy of a sister murdering bitch that I should’ve killed when I had the chance. Thanks to her, they’re able to create marbles that can be made in a lab and implanted surgically, no gumiho or humans required. They’re a fucked up fusion of science and supernatural created after experimenting on most of the original vulpan.” She used finger quotes around the word ‘experimenting’. “Torturing them to death,” she clarified.

“Anyway, the artificial marbles are much weaker than genuine ones, but they can be mass produced, which makes them way more valuable to Paragon. They don’t have the risk of running dry and killing their user the way natural marbles can, and they can’t be removed without ruining them and killing the user in the process. It’s a feature, not a bug, y’know? Means no one can capture their guys and extract the marbles for themselves.”

“But… if they have these fake marbles, why do they need kitsune in the first place?” Hanabi asked.

The redhead looked uneasy. “Three reasons. First, they still need foxfire and foxskins for the transformation. And not all skins are created equal. Some produce bigger, stronger, or tougher vulpan than others, and Paragon is hoping to make better and better skins with a dedicated breeding program. Second, because not **all** of the fox marbles they use are artificial. The Petrovs themselves and some others use the more powerful natural ones, and they were able to consolidate their existing marbles, turning themselves into extremely powerful vulpan. They’ll want at least a couple kitsune around that they can feed people to and grow some true marbles. And third…” She took a deep breath. “Paragon’s goal isn’t just to create an army of vulpan, it’s to prevent anyone else from ever following in their footsteps. That’s why it’s not enough to just kidnap some people from here, why they’re going to kill everyone they don’t keep for breeding and leave the village in ruins.”

“They want to exterminate us,” Hanabi whispered. Sam nodded. “Are… are you sure? I mean, how do you know all this?”

“We have a contact on the inside,” Sam said. “Someone we trust who filled us in on the details. They were also the one who warned us about Levi coming to Hanei in the first place. We were already planning to come here eventually, but this forced us to change our schedule.”

“Schedule?”

“Yeah. You ever hear of the Paradisium?” Sam asked. Hanabi shivered and nodded. Five minutes ago she would’ve called it the only people in the world worse than Levi. Now she wasn’t so sure who took the title. “We have a plan to bring it down, but it needs a kitsune.”

Hanabi looked questioningly at Seo-yun, and then understood. The woman had lost her foxskin, just as she had. “Was it Levi?” she asked quietly.

The red haired fox shrank away from their eye contact. She’d conversed with her companion a few times, but she hadn’t spoken a single word to Hanabi yet. “Yes and no,” she said, her voice small. “He burned my skin four years ago after capturing me because… because it took him a few more hours than he expected to torture me into giving it to him. But I lost my foxfire long before I met him, when I became a gumiho.” Hanabi’s shock at hearing that must have been showed in her expression, because the fox shrank even further. “I, I am not one anymore. My marble was Levi’s first.”

That didn’t make Hanabi feel all that better. Whatever the woman was or wasn’t right now, the fact that she’d once been a gumiho meant that there’d been a time when she’d chosen to eat people. But if this former gumiho wanted to hurt her, she’d had plenty of opportunities to act already. “Do you know of any way to restore a foxskin?” Seo-yun asked timidly.

Hanabi shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I’ve never heard of anyone recreating one. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.” She felt more grateful than ever to have her own pelt back where it belonged.

Seo-yun nodded, her expression carefully neutral. “That is disappointing, but no more than I expected. Thank you.”

“Well, everything else has gone to shit,” Sam grumbled, “but at least we did find a fox.”

  
Hanabi’s face paled. “I-I’m not going to the Paradisium.” Her fate there wouldn’t be as bad as the nightmares, maybe even not as bad as what Levi would do to her, but she still wasn’t going to get anywhere near that vile place if she could help it.

“We’re not just asking you this for ourselves,” Sam told her, giving her a steady look. “Or for a bunch of strangers. After they finally finish this fucking orgy they’ve got going on, Levi’s gonna bring your people to the Paradisium first. Paragon has a contract with the dragon there to give him some of the kitsune, and it’s where he plans to dump others as meat. They’ll be there for a while negotiating which foxes they get to keep, so Karakostas will insist on housing all of them in the Paradisium itself, in the same slave pens as his regular slaves. And part of our plan was already to break into those pens and rescue everyone. So all this just means there will be a few hundred more people down there. No sweat.”

Hanabi held up her hands. “Look, th-there’s gotta be someone else. If you want, I can go down there, see if I can sneak anyone back here. Or we could rescue one of the people up in the trees. I can help you get someone else with foxfire. But not me, okay?” She was done with risking her life. Going out into the forest had made her Levi’s fucktoy, going into the sanctuary had gotten her raped by disgusting creatures and nearly trapped with them forever… and now she was supposed to go to the Paradisium, where they tortured people like her to death just for fun?

Sam looked like she was about to say something further, but it was Seo-yun that spoke up. “Then we won’t force you.” She gave Sam a look, then turned back to Hanabi. “Thank you for everything you have already done. Words cannot express my full gratitude.” She stood. “Is there somewhere safe that I could sleep? It has been quite a while since I last rested.” Hanabi pointed her in the right direction, and the woman bowed and left.

“Does she hate me or something?” The white haired girl asked Sam once the red fox was out of earshot. “She could barely even stand to look at me.”

Sam shook her head. “No, it’s nothing to do with you. She’s just… well, you go two hundred years without talking to people, and your social skills kinda suffer, I guess. Doesn’t help that she was pretty sure that everyone here was gonna despise her when they found out what she used to be. She’s great when it comes to life or death situations, but throw into her something ‘normal’ and… she’ll warm up to you soon, promise. She just needs some time to get to know you.” She looked down the hall towards the direction Seo-yun had gone. “I lied to you earlier.”

“About what?”

“We didn’t come to Hanei to recruit a fox. That was just the backup plan. What she was really hoping was that your people would know a way to get her own foxfire back, so that she could do everything herself. She doesn’t want to put anyone else in danger.” Sam smiled slightly. “The only reason she even lets me help is that she knows better than to try and stop me.” Her brief mirth faded. “But she does need help. I’m not going to force you to come with us either, but we can’t do this alone.”

“I can help you get someone else with foxfire,” Hanabi repeated.

“We don’t just need ‘someone’,” Sam countered. “This is gonna be dangerous and it’s gonna be difficult. From where I’m standing, there’s only one fox in this village who’s managed to get away from Levi, evade capture from an entire army, steal back her foxskin, and rescue the both of us when we needed it.”

Hanabi shook her head. “That was all just luck, I’m not really… I’m not as strong as you think I am.” It was her own idiocy that had put her in Levi’s clutches in the first place. It was thanks to Megumi and that unknown woman that she’d been able to avoid capture. She’d only retrieved her foxskin because the others sacrificed their own chance for freedom to help her, and even then she’d needed divine intervention to stop the vulpan from hauling her out of the temple by the scruff of her neck. And her rescue attempt would have accomplished nothing but handing herself over to the nightmares if it wasn’t for the other two’s ability to protect her. She wasn’t impressive. She wasn’t a hero. She was a scared, useless girl whose luck was due to run out.

The woman looked at her squarely. “You’re not as strong as you think you’re supposed to be. There’s a difference. We can’t make you come with us, Hanabi, but that doesn’t change the facts. We need you.” She rose. “And if I know my wife, right now she’s lying awake trying to figure out how everything wrong with the world can secretly be all her fault, so I’m gonna go kiss some sense into her. You should get some sleep too; I’ll keep watch.”

Hanabi continued staring into space after the redhead left. They’d understand soon enough, once they got to know her better. They’d realize how pathetic she really was.

**********

There were far too many fox fucktoys being trained for everyone to keep track of them all, so Levi had instituted a system to mark slaves by their piercings, and given every man in his ranks ample supply of rings and studs to use at their discretion. They were applied easily and often, and once a piercing was on, they could only be removed through significant effort.

Ear piercings, the ones most easily visible from a distance, indicated unruly slaves that should be watched for possible escape attempts or acts of rebellion. Semen was the staple of even the most obedient fucktoy’s diet, but anyone with at least one ear piercing didn’t even receive the nutritional supplements they would need to survive long term, or enjoy the two hours of sleep that the others were allowed. Sleep deprivation and constant grueling physical activity left them very quickly too exhausted to try much of anything. Removing an ear pierecing required an unasked for act of utter submission to demonstrate their newfound obedience, such as breaking their own fingers to help please the men using them at the time, or ripping off their own tails to show their contrition.

Clit piercings were for lazy fucktoys that required pain to properly perform. Wearing one or more was an open invitation to the men to yank them hard to make the wearer scream and clench. The only way for a fox to get rid of one required first draining a soldier’s balls all by herself, no easy feat given the virility drugs they used. It usually took at least ten loads to accomplish, one after the other, and if the man judged that she had been a tight, hardworking fleshlight the entire time, he **might** deign to remove one.

Many of the foxes no longer had gag reflexes, but a considerable number hadn’t yet accepted that oxygen was a privilege for good fucktoys, not a right. Until they’d properly learned that lesson, they wore a nose piercing that a man could hook a finger into to help cram his throbbing cock down a suffocating fucktoy’s throat, and then use to keep her lips pressed firmly against his base no matter how much she squirmed and begged for air. By now, any woman in the camp without a ring dangling above her upper lip had demonstrably proven on multiple occasions that she knew helping a man spurt down her throat was more important than staying conscious.

Looking at a soldier with anything less than fawning respect or unabashed terror was an indicator that a fox still had some pride and dignity left, and resulted in a lower lip piercing. As Levi himself had described it, any furry slut that still thought she was too good to be a fucktoy could try being a toilet instead. They were still raped and tortured and abused just as much as the other women, but the lip piercing told any man nearby with a full bladder that he should tug her lip down and fill her mouth with piss. Even the other foxes were required to use them; pissing anywhere but in a fox toilet’s mouth was a quick way for a woman to get a lip piercing of her own. Once a woman was marked as a toilet, the only way to get promoted back to fucktoy was to prove to someone that they’d successfully scrubbed all that pride and dignity away, usually by devouring something even more disgusting than fresh piss.

Tongue studs were reserved for foxes who dared to speak for any reason other than to answer a direct question or beg to be fucked. Fucking the mouth of any fox with a stud wasn’t allowed, much to the disappointment of the soldiers. Neither was fucking their other holes with only a single cock. Taking two cocks in both her pussy and asshole, sometimes at the same time, was often enough to make the fox in question appreciate having her mouth available as a third fuckhole and not wasted on activities like speaking her mind. And since the stud wouldn’t be removed until both of her lower holes had been flooded with semen and her entire body was covered in the stuff from head to toe, she would have plenty of opportunities to develop that appreciation.

Last but not least were the nipple piercings, the only marking that was an indicator of praise rather than failure. They were given only to exemplary slaves, those without any other piercings who seemed well on track to becoming properly obedient and useful fucktoys and breeders. Levi had been unsurprised to see that some foxes feared receiving these above all others, though. Any woman pierced this way would be singled out for extra attention, and judged by much harsher standards. It was not uncommon for a fox slut to have her nipple piercings ripped out of her within an hour or two of receiving them, and replaced with a variety of piercings around her body.

Piercings weren’t the only method by which the soldiers marked their toys. Cuts and burns would heal in minutes, and tattoo ink would fade almost as quickly, but thread would stay. Men stitched messages into the foxes’ flesh, or more often made other foxes do it for them, broadcasting to the others their favorite hole or what sort of torture the woman hated most. Often they inscribed obscene words or images with no goal but to degrade their victim. Innumerable crude penises were scrawled permanently on the former citizens of Hanei, along with phrases like STUFF MY TIGHT ASSHOLE and BREED ME LOVER. Of particular interest was the foxes’ foreheads. None of the soldiers had any interest in learning or using the foxes’ real names, so they used the numbers written on their arms instead, or stitched nicknames onto their foreheads like CUMGUZZLER and DUMB BITCH.

Before the first twenty four hours were over, the community of Hanei looked nothing like the peaceful, vibrant population it had once been. Levi was proud of his men; most of them were useless bastards who only thought with their cocks, but they knew how to teach these subhumans their place. While the men and nonbinary foxes languished in cages, dirty and starving, the women crawled around covered in piercings and degrading comments and piss and cum. Most were missing at least one tail, and those that remained were wrapped around their throats or binding their limbs or simply stuffed into their unused orifices. Misery hung over the fallen village like fog, while their oppressors and natural superiors enjoyed the time of their lives.

As it should be.

**********

Emi tried not to panic as she swung from the noose, her feet precious inches from the ground. The dark haired doctor fought down the urge to grab at the rope around her neck, or to beg the onlookers for mercy. Obedience was the only way out of this.

“Bet I’m gonna nail this with the first shot,” a soldier boasted as he picked up one of the syringes they’d stolen somewhere, possibly from her own clinic. If she wasn’t so tired and sore, she would have appreciated the irony of the situation: most of the men here didn’t even know that she was a doctor. It was pure coincidence that they were about to torment her with some of the former tools of her trade.

The man held the syringe like a dart, its needle tip glinting. “So what should the target be? Her neck? Her eye? If I threw one right between those cocksucking lips of hers, I bet the other end would come out the back of her head, yeah? That’d be a neat trick.” Emi’s body shook with fear as he casually discussed where he should try to impale her.

“Aww, you don’t gotta be mean to the poor thing,” said another. “Why don’t we just use those plump titties of hers? First two men to pierce one of those lovely brown nips gets her all to themselves for the next two hours.” He winked at her. “That sound good to you too, slut?”

No. The idea of them turning her breasts into pincushions was the sort of thing she’d have nightmares about, if her imagination could even entertain such capacity for cruelty. But she did her best to smile and choked out “whatever you want, sirs”.

She flinched as the first syringe caught her in the upper thigh. The one who’d thrown it cursed and tried again, piercing her stomach next, and then her upper shoulder. All three syringes remained impaled in her body as she was let down for just a few seconds of breath, then hoisted back up to suffocate for the second thrower. “It’s not half as much fun if she just swings there and takes it,” he complained instead of throwing his first syringe. “You’re here to entertain us, 157, remember? Show off those tits.”

Emi put her hands on the undersides of her breasts and lifted, presenting them to the men. Her display was met with laughter. “Give us a challenge too, love,” another called out. “Jiggle them boobies for us!” She began raising her hands up and down, making her breasts dance in the air for them while she slowly choked to death. The first syringe pinned her left hand to her breast, and there were calls of appreciation, but the second one struck her rib cage and the third missed her completely.

The brunette had done everything her captors had asked, without question. In her two days of captivity so far, she’d already been raped in every hole more times than she could remember, forced to drink piss and lick out assholes and spitshine more than one pair of balls, and agreed with every degrading comment thrown her way. In the beginning, she’d hoped that her compliance might allow her a small measure of freedom that she could use to tend to the others. But it had quickly become clear that her total submission wasn’t viewed as anything special. It was no more than what they already expected from her. And even if she’d been able to distinguish herself as a particularly obedient fucktoy, they had no interest in granting anyone the slightest clemency.

There were twenty two syringes impaling her body, most of them in her abdomen, when the ninth man successfully drove his third shot straight through her left nipple. Emi had managed to remain docile up to that point, but the sudden stabbing pain was too much, and she screamed. “There we go!” said the thrower as the others simultaneously congratulated and cursed him. He shook his cock at her. “You and me are gonna have a little date in a minute, foxy! Better start getting wet now, because I’m gonna stuff that tight cunny good and then go do some sparring!”

Not all of the invading soldiers were the same. Many of them just wanted to get laid as often as possible, and were spending every waking moment on that goal. They were all capable of astounding feats of endurance, but even that wasn’t enough to satisfy them; Emi had witnessed women being beaten within an inch of their lives for failing to get someone hard with their mouths after several straight hours of sex. Those types didn’t have much time for insults or games, not when it meant precious seconds without their dick buried in someone.

Others had been attracted to specific kitsune, and claimed them for themselves for the duration of the week. Those women were being forced to act as their personal sex slaves and tend to their every need, devoting themselves to learning exactly how to best satisfy their temporary owner. Failing to perform adequately usually meant receiving a variety of piercings and stitchings before being tossed back into the general population. Failing to even try to be a good fucktoy was often a death sentence.

The ones tormenting Emi right now fell somewhere between those and a third type, the ones that got off on the degradation and the abuse as much as they did the sex. Those were the type willing to take their time with games like these when they could be off sticking it in someone instead. Most of the men playing darts were among her “regulars”, soldiers who didn’t use her exclusively but kept coming back to rape her again and again. She was familiar with them all by now, not by name or face, but by their cocks and how they enjoyed hurting her. There was the one who’d first captured her, who kept making her taste his balls every chance he got, the one who seemed to enjoy taking her anally just so he could force her to clean him with her mouth afterward, the one who constantly showed up to add a fresh load of cum to her pussy because 157, the number stitched on her forearm, was one of his “lucky numbers”…

The man who’d just won the use of her for the next two hours was one of them too, the one convinced that nothing made a fox clench harder than a strong punch to the stomach. So he would penetrate her, usually standing and from behind, and she would have to beg passing soldiers to come and beat her belly to help him cum. He’d just stand there, enjoying the tightness of her pussy or ass, while she grunted and retched and thanked the others for making her their punching bag.

Only fourteen syringes were inside her when her right nipple was finally struck, but only because all the blood and sweat had made many of them fall out. There were punctures healing all over her arms, legs, stomach, and face. More than half of them were in her breasts, which had been mercilessly skewered more and more often as the soldiers got used to aiming the syringes. Emi’s heart sank even further when she saw who’d thrown it. This one wasn’t one of her regulars, but he’d stood out enough to be recognized.

He already had his knife out, and was sizing her up while the others dumped her onto the ground and began untying the noose. He liked to cut. He was fascinated with what a kitsune could heal from, and equally fascinated with what they couldn’t. Emi had seen the women he’d played with, most of whom were now missing pieces of themselves here and there: fingers, toes, tails, ears. He’d cut out a woman’s tongue only an hour ago to see what would happen, and its owner had been strung up within minutes because of her now “defective” mouth.

Both of these men were about to hurt her very badly, possibly permanently, for no greater reason than their own pleasure. And when her two hours with them were over, she would find no relief, only more abuses. Two hours was a long time in her new life, and many of her regulars would be itching to make full use of her after having to go without for so long. She was trying so hard to show them how obedient she could be, and they just kept being cruel, every last one of them.

Emi looked up at the two men and did the only thing she could: smiled and crawled over to lick their feet.

**********

Hanabi felt like time had never passed more slowly in her life. Or more quickly.

The plan had seemed easy enough when she’d first agreed to it: remain in hiding until Levi and his men departed, and then use the stolen foxskins to rescue all the villagers he’d left strung up to die. The other two women were still clinging to the absurd idea that she was going to help them with their insane idea of attacking the Paradisium, but that was just because she was their only option. Once there were other kitsune around, they’d be able to stop fooling themselves.

She hadn’t appreciated how grueling all that empty time would be. Every second of it felt like a heavy, ponderous thing to be overcome. She would spend hours watching the village, witnessing countless acts of cruelty, and then discover that mere minutes had passed. Hanabi found herself constantly on edge, wondering when the peace would be broken and the violence would return. To be hurting, humiliated, and afraid felt more like her default state by now, and her current situation was just putting off the inevitable.

Paradoxically, time also seemed to be racing, jumping forward in leaps and bounds that turned her bowels to water whenever she thought about it. Kitsune could die from starvation and dehydration just like anyone else, and the ones sentenced to death had already been hanging for days. Many of them were so far gone that the white haired girl couldn’t be sure if they were dead or alive just by looking. If Levi didn’t leave soon, she’d have her answer. But no matter how much she prayed, he showed no sign of picking up his forces and moving, seeming content to relax and enjoy their spoils day after day. And all Hanabi could do was keep waiting, knowing that every passing second might be someone’s last.

The agonizing waiting almost made her frequent trips into the village less awful, but not really. Every time a new fox was strung up to die, Hanabi needed to go retrieve the woman’s foxskin so that she could eventually be saved. Now that she could hide herself with foxfire, there wasn’t nearly as much danger, but there was always the terrifying possibility that she might run into Celeste. Thankfully, finding and stealing the foxskins was usually easy: it had become habit for the soldiers to dump someone’s skin on the ground below them after they were hung up, taking sadistic enjoyment at leaving the pelts so close and yet so far to their owners. All Hanabi had to do was grab the skin herself and leave behind an illusion tied to a piece of cloth.

Doing what she could to keep the hanging kitsune alive was far more difficult. Hanabi couldn’t dare feed them any of the fruit and rations that the three women were currently living on; the most she could do was sneak around to provide them with occasional discreet sips of water, and even that was tricky. It would only take one startled fox making noise for the soldiers to realize that something was going on, and if they even suspected that someone was sneaking around, there was a good chance that they’d just kill everyone strung up to deny them the chance of rescue.

Her help was only putting off the inevitable, not halting it. More than once she’d reached a hanging fox and found their skin clammy and cold. Sometimes Hanabi felt like all she was really doing was prolonging the suffering, making their executions even more drawn out and torturous than Levi had intended. She wondered if the foxes hated her for keeping them alive and denying them the mercy of death. They should.

The only thing that helped distract her from the constant horror of their situation was the newcomers. Outside of Levi and his ilk, it had been decades since she’d last spoken with someone that she hadn’t already known for, well, decades. “Where did you come from anyway?” Hanabi asked Seo-yun as the three of them shared a meal. They were back inside what the others called the nexus, sitting on the beach and watching the tides roll in. The white haired girl felt uncomfortable being back here, but there were hours to go before sunset in this place, and it was safer than hiding in the temple.

The beach and everything else still looked as real as anything to her, but the according to the other two, it was all fake. The place was some kind of artificial construct, a little pocket universe only a few square miles in size that had been hidden away. If she built herself a boat and tried to row away from the island, eventually the water would just… end. The thought of it made her a little queasy, and she was in no hurry to see the phenomenon for herself.

“There is another entrance to the nexus over there,” said Seo-yun, pointing back towards the ruins. “On the opposite side. It’s another beach much like this one. It is linked to an old temple next to the Paradisium.” Like Sam had predicted, the red fox was slowly warming up to her as they spent more time together. She still rarely said anything to Hanabi that wasn’t an answer to a direct question, but she didn’t cringe anymore when the girl looked at her.

“The **Paradisium**?” Hanabi squawked, staring in that direction. This island was less than ten miles long. Any force from there could travel to Hanei in just a couple hours. “Why the hell is **that** place connected to this one?”

“No idea,” said Sam. “I don’t know why you foxes are connected to it either, or even what’s supposed to be in here. Assuming it wasn’t always meant to be nightmare central.”

“It was… I was told that this was some kind of hiding place for, uh, gods,” Hanabi said.  
  
“Gods?” Sam said loudly, looking startled. She looked at Seo-yun. “Gods? Really? There are actual gods?”

Her wife shrugged. “I don’t see why not. We’ve both encountered plenty of strange things in our time. Gods seem like one of the more reasonable ones.”

“Yeah, but as far as I’ve seen, no offense, everyone just seems like humans with some different bits here and there,” Sam countered. “Gods are…” She flapped her hands vaguely. “They’re **gods**!”

“Maybe they’re not all that different…” Hanabi said darkly. “I mean, they had to go hide in here from something, and it looks like it didn’t work out too well for them. Maybe they weren’t really that powerful after all.”

“Good point,” Sam admitted, and sighed. “Well, world’s done a pretty good job of going to shit, gods or no gods. Guess it doesn’t really matter if they’re real or not.”

“Your people were tasked with protecting the nexus?” Seo-yun asked Hanabi, who nodded. “Perhaps the Paradisium was once a very different place. I can think of worse guardians than dragons.”

“Wait,” Hanabi said. “This doesn’t make sense. If Levi is working with the Paradisium, and they wanted to abduct all of us, why not come through this nexus then? Why even bother breaking down our defenses when they have a back door into the place?”

“Probably because Paragon and the Paradisium are allies, not friends,” Sam said. “The dragon’s not going to tell them about a place like this if he doesn’t have to, not when Paragon is the one spending the resources. And he’s sure as hell not gonna send hundreds of grunts in here who might talk about what they’ve seen afterward.”

“But he wouldn’t even have to involve Paragon,” Hanabi pointed out. “Hell, he wouldn’t even have to send anyone else if he didn’t want to. He could just swoop through himself, grab a bunch of foxes, and scorch the rest of us.” The idea seemed terrifyingly plausible, and she resisted the urge to start watching the skies.

“We do not know the dragon’s relationship and history with the nexus,” Seo-yun said. “When we came through from that side, we confirmed that the temple housing the entrance hadn’t been visited for a very long time. Whatever his reasons, it seems unmistakable that Karakostas wants nothing to do with this place.”

Hanabi still didn’t like thinking about it. Between the Paradisium on the other side of the island and the nightmares somewhere underground, her skin was crawling. “That actually wasn’t what I meant,” she said. “When I asked where you were from. I didn’t mean how you did get here, I meant, y’know, where did you come from? I’ve never met a kitsune from outside Hanei before.”

“I was born in South Korea,” Seo-yun said. “My mother and father migrated there from Japan centuries a-”

“Wait!” The white haired girl interrupted. It couldn’t be…“Your parents… is your mother’s name Seijun?”

Seo-yun’s eyes widened, and she suddenly seemed far more animated. “Yes! Do you know them? They came from Hanei?”  
  
It was too much. Hanabi laughed out loud. She didn’t know exactly what kind of joke the universe was playing on her, only that it definitely was. “Everyone knows of Seijun. She… she had white fur, like me.”

Yuki was the last white fox before Hanabi, the one that Hanei would never forget. But she wasn’t the only reason white fur was considered an ill omen. There had been Yuki, and there had been Seijun. “She used to be one of the most respected kitsune in the village, a very long time ago. Back during the War.”

“Which war?” Sam asked.

“Not one you’re gonna find in any history textbooks. There were these creatures called Jorogumo, these big spider… nasty things. We fought them for years. And then…” Hanabi hesitated. She didn’t want to talk about Yuki. She didn’t want Seo-yun to know that her mother’s fur was now seen as a curse, or that people feared Hanabi herself for it. Seo-yun was the first fox she’d ever met who didn’t already know the story, and she wanted to keep it that way for just a little while longer. “By the end of it, we’d lost so many people. Before the War, we’d tried to live in harmony with the humans, or so people say, but after, there were too few of us, and it wasn’t safe. So we returned to Shirakami Sanchi and hid ourselves away from the world.”

  
“Did my mother and father fight in that war?” Seo-yun asked.

Hanabi nodded. “Seijun did, at least. I don’t know much about her mate Yuudai, but I think maybe he helped the injured?”

The red haired woman nodded, and Hanabi was surprised to see tears in her eyes. “Yes, that sounds right,” she said. “What happened next?”

“Seijun was really unhappy about the way we were isolating ourselves. She thought we had a responsibility to help because…” Because we were responsible for the nogitsune. “Because we had the power to. And when she couldn’t convince the others, she and Yuudai just left.” She and Yuki had been celebrated heroes, and then in such a short span of time the village’s only two white foxes were gone, one exiled for her crimes and the other abandoning her people at a time when they were still reeling from loss. “The village tried to track them down at first, but they couldn’t find them and we never got any word back, so eventually everyone assumed that something terrible had happened. But if she’s okay in Korea, then…”

Seo-yun shook her head. “I’m afraid Mother and Father were both killed by hunters three centuries ago.”

“Oh,” Hanabi said. “…I’m sorry.”

“As am I, but it is in the past.” Seo-yun seemed to visibly tear herself away from her thoughts. “It is good to know. They still cared about you, you know. They told me so once. Their dream was to prove that humans and kitsune could work together, and show you that co-operation bested fear.”

  
Hanabi held her tongue. She had some harsh opinions about humans these days, but she knew they wouldn’t go over too well with a fox who’d taken one for a wife. Not that Sam seemed so bad, or that strange woman who’d kept her hidden back in the temple. But they were just two people, and there were hundreds of counter examples in the village right now. She couldn’t keep a scowl off her face at the thought, and while Seo-yun didn’t seem notice, Sam did. The redhead glanced away from her, eyes downcast.

“How much longer, do you think?” the woman asked. She sounded like she didn’t care about the answer, only for the chance to change the subject. “That bastard has to leave soon.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Hanabi replied softly. Part of her had already accepted what the rest of her kept trying to deny: they weren’t going to be able to save the others. They were all going to die out there, while the three of them did nothing but sit around and wait. “He really doesn’t.”

Seo-yun opened her mouth as if to speak, then closed it. Her eyes stared off into the distance.

**********

“Is my cunt tight enough for you, sir?” Sakura asked fearfully.

Her owner laughed. “For now, slut. For now.”

The two of them were in what had once been the first floor of her home. The house was in better condition than most because her owner had decided to take up residence here. The water and electricity were both out, but there was still an intact bed to sleep on, and plenty of food left in the pantry. He might even let her eat some of it eventually, if she was good. And Sakura dearly wanted to be good. She’d seen enough of what everyone else was going through outside to know that she didn’t want any part of it. In here, she was the plaything of a sadist, but she was allowed to sleep when he did, and he only hurt her when she was bad. He didn’t want to hurt her, but she forced him to whenever she did the wrong thing.

He usually didn’t even rape her in that awful monstrous form that so many of them enjoyed. She’d thought at first that maybe he wasn’t one of them, but she’d been a stupid girl on the second day and he’d had no choice but to punish her. He’d transformed and taught her how painful it would be for each of her fuckholes to take his freakish length, ramming them into her so violently that she’d been convinced that even her kitsune healing wouldn’t let them recover. He’d told her that he liked things better the normal, easygoing, human shaped way, where it was much easier for a good girl like Sakura to please him, but if she couldn’t even do something as simple as that, he’d settle for fucking her half to death as a fox instead. She’d agreed with complete sincerity that it would be much better for both of them if she was exactly the kind of eager slut he wanted. A twisted part of her felt genuine gratitude that he thought she was capable of being a good fucktoy for him.

Right now, he sat on the couch, his fly undone and cock out, while she bounced naked on his lap, pleasing him just the way he liked. She’d ridden him for an hour straight by this point, which was good. Good girls made their owners happy as long as they wanted. Not too fast, not too slow, not too gentle, not too tight. A good girl did it juuuuuuuuust the way her owner liked it, until it was time to get a fresh dollop of cream as a reward.

“My pussy is your warm wet cocksheath sir,” she told him. “It’s so happy when you’re home.” That was a lie - it was painful and awful and humiliating to have him inside of her - but he’d taught her that lies were sometimes necessary to be good. She **wanted** to be happy when he was inside of her, and that made it okay to pretend that she already was. It was the same way that she wanted to love the taste of his seed, so she was being a good girl when she purred happily while swallowing it.

Sakura knew that there was something wrong with her head. She was supposed to be strong and brave and resist, but she **hurt** , and all she wanted was to not hurt. This was how she could do it. The real Sakura was miserable and humiliated, but the fake Sakura was a happy fox slut who loved it when her owner did things like squirt his cum into her guts. So she’d closed her real self in a box and locked it tight, where it could sit and watch.

“M-may I taste you soon, sir?” she asked. “Your fox slut is very hungry. She’d love to fill her stomach with your warm buttery spunk.” That one wasn’t as big of a lie, thankfully. Sakura wasn’t the only villager forced to live on their cum, but her owner was stingy compared to most. Even the villagers who’d been claimed by a single man like her were usually fed a dozen or more loads in a day, while she’d been fed less than that since the first night. By now, she was desperate for anything that could blunt the edge of her hunger, even his disgusting white slime.

“Hmm,” he mused, “has my slut earned herself another hot meal so soon?” He began idly playing with her tits, and she arched her back to push them against his hands. “It’s only been, what, six hours? Last thing I want is a chubby bitch riding my cock.”

“I won’t ever allow myself to become a chubby bitch, sir,” she promised the man more than thrice her weight. “I’ll always be your sexy fox slut.”

She continued bouncing on him while he considered it. The movement was like a dance, one she had both no interest in learning and a desperate need to master. Sink down low enough that his cockhead kisses her cervix. Not too fast, don’t want the impact to be uncomfortable for him. A slow, intimate kiss was what he liked. Then grip him with her pussy walls and slide smoothly back up, letting her insides massage his shaft. Don’t let him pop out - even though they’d healed hours ago, she swore she could still feel the whip marks from the last time she’d made that mistake - only go high enough to caress that fat head with her pussy lips. Then relax and swallow him back up so she could do it all over again.. Kiss. Massage. Caress. Swallow. Kiss. Massage. Caress. Swallow.

Her legs burned with exhaustion, she was so hungry that she felt nauseated, and her head pounded from being severely dehydrated. Sakura had never felt more miserable in her life. But that didn’t matter. None of that was a valid excuse to stop kissing, massaging, caressing, and swallowing. Her own condition didn’t matter, she reminded herself. She was just a furry fleshlight. The most important thing in the world was her owner’s dick, and doing whatever it took to keep it fat and happy. Kiss. Massage. Caress. Swallow.

“I suppose I could give you a fresh treat,” he said eventually, “if you do something for me first.” He ran a hand through her bubblegum pink hair. “You foxies have all kinds of hair colors, but there’s no way this one is natural, right? Not with that blonde pussy fuzz down there.”

  
“Yes, sir,” Sakura admitted. “I dye it once a month.”

  
“Mmm hmm.” He twirled a finger around her locks. “You must be very proud of your hair, to take the time to get it looking so good.” Without warning, he tugged painfully on the hair wrapped around his finger, forcing her to tilt her head back. “What’s more important, slut: this hair of yours, or my jizz?”

  
“Y-your jizz, sir,” she said quickly.

Her let up on her hair and the pain eased. “Exactly. That’s why it needs to go. To help you remember that the only thing in your life you should care about anymore is the fat prick buried in your twat.”

Sakura was frozen with fear while he reached into his pants pocket and took out a large military knife. He pressed it into her hand, but kept his fingers wrapped around her own; she would’ve told him that she’d never dare attack him with it, but just bringing up the possibility would probably earn her a thrashing. Her hair? Why did he have to get rid of her hair? Wasn’t she being a good girl? She trembled, and fresh tears slipped from her eyes.

He brought the knife up to her scalp. “Slice it off, slut,” he ordered.

“Please…” she whispered. “Please sir, I’ll be good, I’ll be your good foxy slut forever, I promise.”

His breath was hot and rancid in her ear. “How am I supposed to believe you if you can’t even follow such a simple command? Everyone around here wants a piece of all the pretty girls, slut, but I don’t like to share. I don’t care about looks either; as long as you’ve got soft warm holes that treat me right, I don’t give a fuck how ugly you are. So we’re gonna make sure that nobody gets sad about you being my personal cumdump. And if you’ve got a problem with that…” The knife slid down her head, until it rested against her nose. “There’s all kinds of ways I could make you uglier, slut. You’re just full of extra pieces that a fucktoy doesn’t need.” He applied slight pressure, and she winced as the blade broke the skin, making blood trickle over her lips and down her chin. “So would you rather be my bald slut, or should I start cutting?”

“P-p-please m-make me your b-bald slut…” she forced out, terrified. She didn’t doubt his threat for a second. There were already plenty of kitsune out there who’d been hurt worse for less reason, mutilated and sentenced to death. Nobody would care if he disfigured one more.

The weight of the knife returned to her scalp. Sakura steeled herself and then, scared that he might change his mind if she hesitated too long, began to drag the knife over her head. She sobbed as she felt her hair scatter, most of it sliding down her back. “Not like that,” he said with a touch of irritation. “I didn’t tell you to give yourself a haircut. I want this head completely sheared.” He positioned the knife back at her forehead and dug in, nearly scalping her as he swept it over her skull. “Like that.”

It took many passes, and the bald girl’s head was bloody in numerous spots when she was finished. He rubbed her head with one hand as he pocketed the knife, and her flesh crawled to feel him touching her now bare skin up there. “Now there’s a good slut. Mmm hmm, no one’s going to look twice at an ugly piece of shit like you now. Isn’t that nice?”

“Y-yes sir.” Sakura fought to manage her tears. No one liked a weepy bitch, she reminded herself. Good girls don’t cry. They smile and giggle and purr, and they never do anything else unless their owner wants it.

“Now come get your reward.”

Sakura rose off of him and turned around, sinking to her knees. His dick was covered in her pussy juice and throbbing happily, precum leaking freely from its tip. She stared at the obscene sight and forced on a smile. “Thank you for this treat, sir,” she told him. “It’s going to be yummy!” Without breaking eye contact or letting the expression of feigned joy slip, the bald fox closed her lips around her owner, and got to work on sucking out her dinner.

***********

Ichika grunted in pain as the vulpan slammed into her womb, breaking through her restored cervix as easily as her hymen. Like all of her tormentors, he fucked her like his cock was a weapon, impaling her on it almost as violently as a sword. Every time his hips connected with her upturned ass, the blow was nearly hard enough to break her bones.

The former captain was on all fours, each of her limbs held by chains that had been pounded into the ground. They’d used her tails too at first, but those had been ripped off one by one by a steady stream of overeager rapists, all of them happy to destroy her body for their own pleasure. The only thing left that marked her as a kitsune was her fox ears, and from the way some of the vulpan liked to chew and worry at them while they used her, she suspected they would both be gone before the week was out. Her head was lower than the rest of her, forced into a depression in the ground by the choke collar around her neck. Even when she kept her head down so far that her lips and nose brushed the dirt, she could only draw a meager trickle of breath.

When there was even air to breathe, that was. One of the watching vulpan took the opportunity to lift his leg and piss into the latrine her head was trapped in, raising the same choice she’d been given a thousand times already: drink their piss, or drown in it. She chose the first option, as she always did, quickly sucking down the yellow liquid before it could pool, but the second sounded more appealing every time.

The vulpan raping her pulled back farther than usual, letting his cock pop free of her bloody pussy, and she quickly relaxed her anus as best she could. When he skewered it a half second later, it was still enough agony for her to cry out and choke on some of the urine, but it didn’t literally rip her sphincter muscle, as so many of the others had done before she’d gotten the reflex down. He pounded her guts as savagely as he had her womb, lubricated only by the hundreds of loads of cum he and his kind had left in there.

Ichika wasn’t the only woman being raped by the vulpan. Far from it. There were hundreds of them, and their overgrown sex drives were even worse than the human soldiers, and since Hanei had fallen she’d yet to see a single one not eating, sleeping, or fucking at any given time. More than half the women in the village laid on the ground around her, screaming as they were ravished by the beasts. Everyone rotated in shifts: twelve hours with the vulpan, ten with the humans, and just two to sleep if they’d been good and hadn’t earned themselves an ear piercing.

But the captain was special. She’d spent all day and every day so far with the vulpan. And the other kitsune nearby were being treated like anyone else in the village, albeit by beasts with cocks larger and hardier than what the humans were packing. Ichika, on the other hand, was being punished. Every giant monstrous fox around wanted to be the one to break her, to fuck her into sobbing submission as payback for killing one of their own. She’d realized early on that that was the only reason she hadn’t been strung up the moment they’d realized that she was the one who’d killed one of them; their commander didn’t just want to execute her, he wanted a broken and whimpering victim he could hold up to everyone to show how pointless it was to resist.

Ichika supposed that she should regret what she’d done, but she didn’t. They could do whatever they wanted to her, but they couldn’t undo the fact that she’d made one of them pay for coming here. She longed to up that number, but she’d take what she could get.

She recognized every one of the women here with her, but Megumi’s presence may have been the most painful. Like her, she was permanently in use by the vulpan. Ichika had been present when Levi had made good on the punishment he had promised her, stringing up each and every kitsune she’d tried to protect while he enjoyed the blind priestess’s holes for a final time. When it was over and he’d grown bored of raping her, he’d tossed her to the werefoxes and told them to enjoy her for as long as they wanted.

The claws of Ichika’s latest rapist sank into her back as he thrust forward a final time, using her own vertebrae as leverage to stuff his entire prick into her. Bones crunched beneath his grip as his hot cum defiled her guts like so many had before it. Ichika didn’t try to hold back her screams, but the wail of agony only lasted a few seconds before another vulpan stomped on the back of her head with one paw, pushing her face first into the piss soaked mud of the latrine and silencing her cries.

She passed out like that, suffocating in the dirt, and wasn’t surprised when she woke to find her asshole still being used as a fleshlight by an eager vulpan, maybe the same one as before, maybe not. One of the others had used the latrine while she was out, and she could smell the acrid piss soaking her hair. Just business as usual these days. Passing out was the only rest she was allowed these days, and vulpan piss and cum the only sustenance. She knew that they intended to keep this up until she died; as if their behavior hadn’t been obvious enough, some genius had sewn DEAD CUNT on her forehead.

In other words, every minute that she stayed alive and sane despite their abuse was a small victory. She didn’t protest or defy anyone outright - Miku and Kumi had, and she could still see where their mutilated bodies hung - she just kept on going when everyone assumed that she wouldn’t.. She could feel the frustration in every rapist when she took everything they had without faltering, and it was the closest she came to enjoying herself these days.

Ichika reminded herself for the thousandth time that she wasn’t the same scared girl she’d been back in the War, and for all their savagery, these monsters weren’t Jorogumo. That experience had been the worst of her life, and these vulpan were still firmly in second place. She’d survived those days, and she’d survive these. She let herself settle into the rhythm of her current rapist, whoever it was, and braced herself for the hours and hours yet to come.

***********

Rei’s hands shook slightly with fatigue as she placed them on her mother’s thighs, spreading Kaede’s legs far apart and exposing her crotch. She raised her head and gently flicked her mother’s hooded clitoris with her tongue, then began to trace a path up and down her spread slit, occasionally returning to flick the clitoris again. Her own genitals were receiving the same treatment from her mother above her, the two women locked in a passionate sixty nine embrace.

  
Once her mother’s clitoris was standing out and stiff, and her entrance leaked a steady flow of juices, Rei pulled the woman’s pussy lips apart and tilted her head back to look at the waiting soldier, whose cock rested on her forehead. Beneath it, the thread naming her MOTHERFUCKER still made her ache. “Your fucktoy is ready for you, sir,” she breathed. She was tired and hungry and scared, but she did her best not to let any of it show in her voice, keeping her tone silky and sensual instead. “Please enjoy her.”

The grinning man slapped her face with his prick before positioning it at her mother’s pussy. Rei raised her head again so that her tongue could slide across the cockhead and underside of the shaft as it slipped into her slick passage and the woman moaned in feigned pleasure. Once it was fully buried inside her mother, the girl kissed the base softly, then moved her attention to the man’s hanging balls, showering them with love and affection. On the other side of the table, Kaede was inviting a man to fuck her daughter, and the dark haired girl let out a fake moan of her own as she was penetrated.

While she serviced him, and tried to ignore the ache in her pussy as she was raped, her fingers were busy working Kaede’s asshole open as gently as she could, the digits lubricated only by her tongue whenever she could spare a moment to lick them. Between Kaede’s soft insides and Rei’s hardworking mouth, it only took a few minutes for the first man to explode inside her mother. He pulled out, leaving a trail of sticky cum leaking on Rei’s face, and was immediately replaced by another soldier. The newcomer wasn’t interested in her mother’s sperm soaked pussy; he pushed into her anal ring instead. Rei’s efforts made it easier on the woman, but she still felt Kaede flinch as she was impaled.

Rei’s own pussy was filled with cum shortly after, and her bowels forced to stretch around a new cock. She tried to distract herself from the pain by focusing on her new task: planting her lips on her mother’s slit and noisily sucking the cum out of it. Much of it had been shot too deep for her to reach, but she wasn’t allowed to clean that out anyway. The sperm back there would remain as yet another attempt to breed her, just as the depths of her own pussy were still sticky with the stuff.

The man fired his cum into her mother’s guts, and then Kaede’s pussy was being penetrated again while Rei used her fingers to passionately scoop out and eat the semen oozing from her used ass. Even when she was done and her mouth was firmly attached to scrotum again, she kept her fingers inside her mother’s anal ring, stretching it wide to show off her used asshole to everyone there. Mocking laughter and crude comments told her that the men waiting in line appreciated the view, but she hadn’t just done it for them. Left on its own, Kaede’s rectum would be fully healed by the time it was used next, making that anal rape hurt just as badly as when she’d lost her virginity there at the start of all this. By holding it open and slowing its healing, it wouldn’t be quite as painful. It wasn’t much, but it was one of the few things she could do to make this experience easier on her mother.

The simple and obscene cycle continued, washing whatever hole was not in use so that each new rapist could have a clean hole to enjoy. She could feel her mother’s own fingers and tongue as she diligently performed the same chore. While Rei cleaned her mother’s holes and licked the balls of the men raping her, unseen men were raping her pussy and her ass and her pussy and her ass and her pussy and her ass…

Hours later, Rei was more exhausted than ever, and her stomach felt full to bursting with all the warm cum she’d slurped up. But they were managing it, both of them, just like the men had asked. “God, you two fucked up sluts really do love eating each other out, don’t you?” joked one of the men as he raped Kaede’s pussy. “Just a pair of freaky incest loving fox sluts.”

  
“Yes sir,” Rei agreed, trying not to sound disgusted or upset. “I love playing with my mother.”

“My daughter is delicious,” said Kaede, her voice strained in the same way.

Hanei was already gone, replaced by a nightmare orgy within its ruins. Soon even that would be over, and the kitsune would find themselves scattered to the winds, sold to wealthy humans or kept in cages for breeding or slaughtered like cattle. No matter what their own fate would be, Rei and Kaede had agreed: they would share it together. If that meant giving these filthy minded men the kind of mother-daughter pair that they had sick fantasies of, so be it. As long as they had each other, they could endure whatever horrors came at them, even if it required humiliating themselves with shameful acts like these.

So Rei smiled at the next man who stepped up to sodomize her mother, and lovingly kissed the cock that would do it. “I hope you enjoy your fucktoy, sir,” she told him, and a small desperate part of her meant it.

***********

“Any sign of her yet?” Nobu whispered. He tried not to move his lips while he talked; the guards’ ears would be too poor to hear them, but their eyes weren’t too dull too catch them talking, and they were quick to punish any action other than standing and breathing.

“No, no one’s seen her since the bonfire,” his husband whispered back in the same fashion. Kamio was pressed up against him by the throng of bodies . Under different circumstances the close proximity would have been very pleasant, but when trapped in a cage with fifty other naked, beaten, and starved foxes, it just added to his sense of claustrophobia.

  
Nobu let out his breath. Sometimes no news was good news, he reminded himself. If Levi had captured his daughter, the bastard would probably be parading her around right now. Silence meant she was still out there somewhere. But it also meant that no one knew where. He prayed every day that she’d made it out of the village and to safety.

It wasn’t fair that all of this had fallen on her shoulders. He couldn’t think of anyone smarter or more resourceful, but she was so young, and still suffering from what had happened before. Even if these men had never shown up, she’d probably still be squirreled away in Dr Emi’s clinic right now, slowly learning how manage her trauma. “Still have some foxfire left?” he whispered.

Kamio nodded. “Enough to make myself memorable.” He didn’t bring up the possibility of using it to slip away, and neither did Nobu. They both understood that escape was a lower priority than helping their daughter.

They fell silent as one of the human soldiers approached the cage and the men guarding it. “Need a few dogs,” the man announced. “You got some good ones I can borrow?”

One of the guards looked into the cage and smirked. “These dirty little fuckers? Nah, what you see is what you get. Just pick some and make do.”

All of the foxes tensed as the cage door was opened, none of them daring to make a move. They could run for it, but the chances that anyone would make it were slim, and the attempt was certain to cost many lives in retribution. So they waited meekly while the soldier picked five of them, Nobu included. The five foxes crouched on all fours once they were let out, allowing the man to hook leashes to the collars they already wore. “Alright, dogs,” he said once he was done and held all five leashes. “Get moving.”

They began to crawl across the ground in unison, their movement dictated by tugs of their collar and occasional kicks in the side. Outings like this were common; they would be used as cheap manual labor so that the humans could relax and enjoy their captured kitsune women instead of doing work. Over the last few days Nobu had dug latrines, set up tents, and many other menial chores.

He felt sharp pangs of grief and homesickness when he saw that they were heading towards the vicinity of his old home. Those feelings mounted as they drew closer and closer, and he realized that their destination wasn’t just the vicinity. “We’ll start with this one,” said the soldier as he led them right up to the desecrated and torn up building that Nobu, Kamio, and Hanabi had once lived in. Several other soldiers were already there, casually raping a pair of women while they waited. “Time to sniff us up some treasure, mutts. Haul everything out of there.”

Nobu felt like he was in nightmare as he numbly followed orders. The outside of the building was ruined, and everything on the inside that had stood out as valuable had already been looted, but there was still plenty of furniture and other odds and ends in there. These things he and the others began bringing out so that the soldiers could assess them. Valuables like the ring he’d received from Kamio for their eightieth anniversary, the antique tea set with gold trimmed plates, and the laptop computer that they’d surprised Hanabi with for New Years three years ago were all put aside, so that the humans could sell them off at some point.

And everything else, like the pressed flowers his husband had brought back from the Bon Festival all those years ago, Nobu’s journals full of half finished stories and poems, all the drawings Hanabi had made as a child that they’d saved… all dismissed as trash and tossed into one of the several growing junk heaps around the village. Some of it would be pulled out and used as kindling eventually, and the rest would be left to rot under the sun.

It took several hours, and when they were finished, Nobu’s residence for centuries was no longer recognizable. He stared at the bare walls and floor and felt nothing but black despair. “Come on, mutt,” said one of the soldiers, picking up his leash and giving it a painful tug. “We’ve got plenty more trash heaps for you lot to sniff through today.”

Nobu sank to all fours and crawled out of the empty shell of his home.

**********

Shura had considered the idea of Hanei being invaded before. Fantasized about it, even, during her long and fruitless shifts as a sentry. She’d imagined herself as the brave solitary hero standing up to the encroaching horde, sometimes beating them back through grit and courage, sometimes resisting tirelessly until her dying breath. She had never once truly **wanted** anything like that to happen. It was just a fun daydream. The sort of thing you started thinking about when you were only an hour into your shift and already bored out of your skull.

And then it had really happened, and she’d discovered how pathetic she was.

The soldiers around her were laughing and talking with one another as she diligently licked their feet while spreading herself open for their use. None of them were raping her right now, or even paying her any particular attention, but that didn’t stop her from slurping and slobbering all over their filthy boots, or from wagging her ass enticingly for them. It was this meek obedience that had made her one of the very first kitsune to receive nipple rings. She’d shown no hesitation, restraint, or dignity when it came to being a good slave for their new masters.

She was also one of the foxes with the most thread tattoos covering her body. There was the name PUPPYSLUT across her forehead, the words MEET YOUR NEW FAVORITE HOLES written up and down her thighs, the crude drawing of a baby kit on her stomach, handprints around her breasts, and many other signs and drawings. The worst part was that she’d suggested all of them herself. The humans weren’t particularly creative when it came to those sorts of things, at least not when dealing with a submissive little bitch who’d never given them any trouble. It was the other, less broken foxes that inspired their sadism.

Shura hadn’t realized just how weak she was until all of this happened, how easily she could become a cowering fucktoy for human strangers. No one had singled her out for special treatment or focused on breaking her. Her treatment had been largely the same as all the other female foxes of Hanei. The only difference was her. When push came to shove, she’d crumpled like wet tissue paper. If she did everything that they wanted, they didn’t hurt her as much as they could have… and that had been worth throwing away her pride.

Once she’d scraped every last bit of filth off the current pair of boots she’d been working on, the blue haired woman sat back on her haunches and pulled her lips wide apart with her index and middle fingers. “Duhh ehhee unnn haa ehhee hahh hiss fuhh eeeh?”

“Yeah, I got some hot piss for you, puppyslut,” said one of them, and pointed his cock at the urinal she was offering. She caught his stream in her mouth and gagged only briefly before establishing a steady rhythm of gulping. Two more men took the opportunity to relieve their bladders, and another decided he wanted a fucktoy more than a toilet. All he had to do was grab a fistful of her dirty, sweat- and cum-stained hair, and drag her head to his crotch. Shura immediately began the now familiar process of lapping him from balls to tip, working hard to get him as slick as possible as quickly as possible, before he could lose patience and decide to take over.

Once she’d spent as much time as she dared plastering him with her spit, she opened her mouth wider and took him in, letting the thick head of his cock slide into the fucktunnel that was her throat. She kept her eyes trained up on his face the entire time, which let her see how he’d stopped paying any real attention to her. By the time her lips were tight around his base, the pulsing of his cock and slight swaying of his hips was the only sign that he even noticed what she was doing.

Some men enjoyed grabbing her by the ears and hilting themselves in her throat when they came, but this one didn’t even bother to glance down at her before his cock began to spurt. Shura swallowed every drop and licked him clean before letting his prick slip soft and happy from her mouth. “Thank you for using my face hole, master,” she said, and received no response, which somehow felt worse than any mocking response would’ve.

Without letting an ounce of her unhappiness show on her face, she bent down to resume tongue washing their boots. No one had ordered her to do it, just as no one had requested that she play toilet or demand that she service their cocks with all the enthusiasm she could muster. They didn’t have to; she was a well trained slut.

**********

In her time in service to humans, Celeste had endured many conversations between them. They were full of wild inaccuracies even at the best of times, and during the worst she acutely felt the weight of every second of her sentence upon her.

There was one particular topic she had heard brought up by several humans over the years, and had always regarded with bemusement: pink elephants. Tell one of them not to think of pink elephants, it was said, and they would be unable to help themselves. It was one of the many strange quirks of the species, and Celeste had never been able to work out why exactly such a simple task was so difficult for them.

After two years, seven months, twenty two days, six hours, thirty five minutes, and seventeen seconds, however, it was no longer so easy.

The winter fae woke her master in the usual manner he preferred: a loud, sloppy blowjob that had her face soon covered in drool. Master Levi enjoyed denying her even quiet dignity in her service. His cock began to stiffen in moments, and the man himself began to stir shortly after. Once she was certain he was awake, Celeste swallowed him up, taking him into her throat until her lips were pressed firmly against the base. She possessed no gag reflex, so she had to voluntarily make the sounds he liked to hear instead, gurgling and retching on his hard shaft.

As an added act of cruelty, she was under no specific order to do any of this. It was rare for him to give her direct orders regarding anything sexual these days. He simply voiced his desires, and if they weren’t met satisfactorily, punishment would result.

Master Levi’s latest target for punishment was still bound in place where he’d left her for the night. He’d made use of a variety of different kitsune over the last week, but this one seemed to have become a favorite of his. Tomo was bent over the sawhorse with her legs spread, her six remaining tails tied to its legs. More standard rope had been used to bind her wrists behind her, but the end of it had been tied off in a noose around her neck, forcing the brunette to keep her head up in order to breathe. The position left her sizable breasts pushed out in front of her, a fact that the fox had become very aware of last night.

Torturing those breasts had been Master Levi’s idea of foreplay. He had whipped them bloody, burned them with cigarettes, smacked them with his belt until they were dark with bruises, and more. Tomo had begun begging him to rape her long before he’d tired of the game and granted her wish. She had found no relief in the act, though; while their master was busy savaging his new toy’s cunt and ass, it had been up to Celeste to continue the torture in his stead.

The fae was given no instruction about the severity or manner of torture, only that it meet his personal standards. Celeste knew that if Tomo hadn’t been terrified by her before, she was now, after the way she’d cruelly driven needles into the fox’s flesh while Master Levi raped her. The brunette had sobbed and pleaded for mercy when the servant had retrieved their master’s discarded belt and began smacking the embedded needles, seeking to drive them even further into the helpless girl. Celeste wasn’t allowed to explain that if Master Levi thought she’d held back in the slightest, he’d punish the fae by torturing Tomo some more himself. Her former mistress Jessica Wilmingshire had been forced to endure many long nights of suffering before Celeste was able to ignore her own feelings and properly hurt the woman the way he wanted.

Even if she were allowed to explain the cause of her actions, Celeste would have still remained silent. It was only right that the fox hate and fear her, because so much of this was her fault. Her weakness had allowed Master Levi to take ownership of her, and that in turn had enabled all of this.

There was a variety of sounds present outside, among them that of Jessica Wilmingshire’s suffering. Master Levi had been almost delighted to learn of her disobedience, happy for the opportunity to punish her. At the moment, she was being held in crude stocks just outside, constructed by several foxes on soldeiers’ orders. Master Levi had decided to make up for lost time, and invited all his men to give his pet a try when they had the chance. In the week since then, Celeste had yet to see or hear the woman without at least one cock busy inside her.

Celeste messily deepthroated their owner’s dick, bobbing her head up and down on him while slurping and drooling and gagging. Like a brain dead, cock addicted slut, Master Levi had said. She could feel Tomo’s wide eyes on her as she gave him just what he wanted, abandoning all pretense of dignity or grace just to further slake his sexual appetites. Spit soaked her chest as she noisily slurped up the precum dribbling from him, and she began to pump her throat with one hand, choking herself to provide his dick an even tighter hole to penetrate.

She would rather die than give this unrepentant murderer another ounce of pleasure, but she threw herself into the task with everything she had, and it wasn’t only for the sake of the terrified girl staring at her. It was a distraction, and she needed as many of those as she could get.

Celeste felt Master Levi’s cock twitch happily inside of her, and smoothly drew back to catch his load in her mouth. The slimy substance coated her cheeks and tongue, and brought with it the familiar conflict of desires: the urge to spit the foul, disgusting juice out, and the urge to gulp down the precious food. Fae didn’t need to eat to survive in the same way that mortals did, but they could still feel hunger. For the last two years, seven months, twenty two days, nineteen hours, forty seven minutes, and three seconds, she had been starved of everything but the bodily fluids of her master, herself, and the other women under his control. And given that said other women did require food to survive, all too often his sperm was fed to one of them instead of her.

She resisted both urges, letting the bitter semen remain in her mouth. He would tell her what to do with it and when. Sometimes she went entire days, adding load after load of congealed slime to her mouth until her cheeks bulged, before she was allowed to dispose of it.

That wasn’t the sort of torment he was after today. “Feed the fox bitch her breakfast,” he grumbled as he climbed out of bed and began getting dressed.

“Yeff maftuh Evi,” Celeste said through her closed mouth, and crawled to the brunette. Tomo tried to turn her head away, but the fae grabbed the back of her head to hold her still and planted her lips over the girl’s. Tomo continued to struggle as Celeste’s tongue pushed their master’s cum into her mouth, but the fae didn’t allow a single drop to spill. Once most of it was out, she licked the insides of her mouth to catch all that remained, then forcibly transferred it to Tomo’s squirming tongue, carefully rubbing it with her own until she was certain that the fox had everything.

It was more than simple obedience and the desire to carry out her orders to the best of her ability that motivated the Sidhe woman. The first few days under Master Levi were always the worst, and as much as the girl might despise the taste and texture of the food - a sentiment Celeste understood quite well - she would need all the strength she could get, and even the pathetically meager amount of calories the semen offered was better than nothing. By the time her task was completed, their master had finished dressing. “Now go make my breakfast, slut,” he ordered.

The home he’d commandeered contained ingredients that could be combined into at least fourteen different poisons, including three he was unlikely to detect and had a high probability of killing even a vulpan. But Celeste had strict orders about what she was and was not allowed to do. Per those rules, even the thought of committing violence against him merited punishment. Admitting that she had allowed herself to consider the efficacy of poison two days ago was why he’d taught innocent Tomo some of the ways a sadist might use a power drill. The girl had screamed herself hoarse that night.

The fae could hear her screaming now as well, the familiar sound drifting in from the bedroom to mix with the litany outside. Based on his observed behavior, he was most likely torturing her breasts again, this time after binding the bases with rope to squeeze them and make them more sensitive. It was a favored tactic of his, in style if not literal method; torture the victim at night, leave her in a position that denied her sleep, then resume with a more severe version of the same torture in the morning. The presumed goal was to impress the victim with a sense of despair, showing her that her torment could indeed get worse and worse over time, and that the only way to stop it was to make her torturer happy.

Tomo was attempting to do just that when Celeste brought the breakfast tray in. The brunette still possessed little experience with oral sex, but she was doing her best to compensate with slavish obedience, giving a performance that rivaled Celeste’s in desperation. There was nothing feigned about her gagging as she tried to force his penis deeper into her throat, tears streaming from her bloodshot eyes.

The fox had to know better now than to hope that Master Levi would choose to stop hurting her while she pleasured him. Her bound breasts had already ballooned thanks to the bondage, the skin taking on an unhealthy discoloring, but her left nipple looked to be in even worse condition as he gripped it with the pliers.

His other hand rested on the back of his captive’s head, preventing her from pulling away from him until he allowed it. The bluish tinge to her lips paired with the frantic look in her eyes told Celeste that he was already deep enough to be denying her oxygen. She would draw her next breath when her master willed it and not a moment sooner.

The winter fae set his breakfast to the side and then knelt behind him to start tonguing his asshole and massaging his scrotum. Her unasked for submission disgusted her, but there was honor in it as well: she knew that her assistance would make him finish faster and provide Tomo some relief sooner. In a similar fashion, she had opted to prepare a bowl of rice and eggs for his breakfast, a meal that would require utensils to eat gracefully. If he wanted to eat, and he was typically ravenously hungry in the morning, he would need to finish what he was doing and step away from his new toy, if only briefly.

She doubted that Master Levi was unaware of her motivations, but he rarely interfered in them. He would consider her minuscule acts of mercy as yet another sign of her inferiority, both in power and purpose. To a predator like him, cooperation was an admission of weakness. He would have done well for himself had he been born into the winter court.

It was only larger transgressions, especially attempts to skirt around his web of rules, that earned his attention and wrath. Like.............................

Celeste continued servicing Master Levi from behind until she felt the tiny motions of his scrotum that signaled his orgasm. At the last minute, he yanked Tomo’s head off of him, leaving the fox to gasp for air while he painted her abused mammaries with semen. Some of the cuts and abrasions were still healing, and the girl squirmed as the salty substance covered them. “Clean that up,” he ordered.

“Yes, Master Levi.” The fae started lapping their owner’s cum off of the girl’s breasts, attempting as subtly as she could to be gentle about it. Once she’d cleaned the skin, she would move to the floor below, chasing every last fallen droplet. The way Tomo flinched at her approach told Celeste that she was right about the girl being terrified by her now. It was no matter. She’d grown used to being feared by other women long before she’d ever met Master Levi.

While she went about her task, the blond man selected a pair of handcuffs, a hammer and several nails from his equipment. “I have some work to do this morning,” he told the still sobbing fox, “and I don’t have the patience to drag around a half trained bitch while I’m at it. So you can either spend the next four or five hours cuffed to the bed, or nailed to that sawhorse by your tits. Do you have a preference, animal?”

“The bed, sir!” Tomo squeaked quickly. “Please, the bed! I-I’ll do whatever you want, and I’ll b-be a good fuh... fucktoy, just like you want!”

“Then tell me about the white furred fox cunt,” Master Levi growled.

Tomo’s face went pale. “I-I told you, I don’t know anyone like-“

Blood spattered the floor as Master Levi struck the girl’s cheek with his hammer. Celeste quietly began licking it up along with his cum. “Every goddamn one of you animals insists you don’t know her.” His backhand swing caught her on the other cheek with an ugly crack. “You can’t even lie properly!”

Between her broken cheekbones, her sobs, and her panicked need to talk as quickly as possible, Tomo’s pleas were barely intelligible. “No-please-sir-I-swear-I-swear-I-don’t!” She gagged as Master Levi shoved the head of the bloody hammer between her lips, and then her small pink tongue began frantically cleaning it, desperate to demonstrate her obedience.

“There are only two things you’re allowed to say after I pull this out,” warned the blond man, twisting and pushing the hammer as he worked it down her throat. “I hear a single extra syllable, and I bury this in your skull and then go find a new cum dump. Do you understand, slut?” Tomo quickly nodded. “Number one: ‘I’ll tell you everything you want to know about your white haired runaway bitch’. Number two: ‘I’m a stupid, lying cunt who deserves to have her fat tits nailed down.’ Choose.”

More blood drooled out of the fox’s mouth after her owner yanked the hammer out, and her voice was wet and raspy. “I’m a s-stupid lying cunt who deserves... t-to have her fat tits n-nailed down...”

“That’s what I thought,” said Master Levi. He tossed the hammer and nails at Celeste, and they bounced off her head, accompanied by a sharp burst of light that left her scalp smoking. Iron nails. “Start by nailing her cunt to the horse.”

“Yes, Master Levi.” The faerie’s fingers sizzled as she picked up the nails, but she clung to them tightly. Tomo was begging her to stop while she tugged at the girl’s pussy lips, stretching out a little of it to press against the sawhorse. It was rough, unsanded wood, and the brunette whimpered at the forceful contact with her sensitive skin. Celeste deftly used the same hand that was holding her to twirl around the nail, positioning the tip to rest against her flesh. Her other hand swung the hammer.

Tomo howled like a woman possessed as the nail was driven straight through her, embedded so sharply that the first thrust was enough to leave her pussy lips crushed between the wooden sawhorse and the flat head of the nail. Making the process as quick as possible was meant as an act of mercy, but Celeste wasn’t surprised that the girl didn’t seem to see it that way. While Tomo wailed, Celeste pounded three more nails into her, leaving two on each side.

When she was done, the fox’s pussy was left splayed out and vulnerable, the visible insides still bruised from use and coated with drying sperm. “Heel,” their master ordered, pointing the floor in front of the sawhorse, and Celeste obeyed. Master Levi positioned her on her knees, the two women’s faces only inches apart and their chests rubbing each other.

The fae was experienced enough with her owner’s sadism to see what was coming, but Tomo was oblivious as the man pinched her right nipple and pressed it against the underside of Celeste’s. “Do it.” Horrified understanding flickered in the fox’s eyes when Celeste pressed the tip of the nail against her own nipple from above, but there was nothing either of them could do to stop what was coming.

She pounded the iron nail down through both of their nipples, pinning them together while her flesh sizzled in response. Tomo bucked and tried to pull back, but all she managed to do was nearly rip hers off. Celeste was more used to torture, and better equipped to endure it, but being pierced by iron was its own kind of hell. It felt like someone had crammed hot embers into her flesh.

On Master Levi’s order, she nailed their other two nipples together as well.

“Don’t move,” he told the winter fae as he left the bedroom. “And you, enjoy your break. When I get back, we’ll find out how good it feels to fuck your cunt in that position.” Tomo’s only response was a sob.

After he was gone, the fox kept shifting, trying without success to find a more comfortable position. Celeste had been positioned far enough away that Tomo’s upper body was stretched out and taut, trapped between the two sets of nails. The Sidhe woman could have easily offered some relief just by leaning forward a little, providing her fellow captive precious millimeters of slack. But Master Levi’s order had been clear, and Celeste was forced to continue torturing Tomo by proxy.

“Why is he doing this?” the girl whispered. “Why does he care so much about Ha- about the white haired girl?”

Celeste couldn’t reply, any more than she could shift her position or blink her eyes. If she could’ve answered, she would’ve told Tomo about her new owner’s pride and jealousy. She would’ve explained that there was nothing that angered him more than being shown up, however minor the incident. He had captured the fox girl through her, tortured and raped her for hours, and intended to use her up and throw her away, but all that mattered to him was that she had escaped. That was enough to make him the wronged party in his head, and indelibly categorize the girl as someone who needed to pay.

As someone who’d spent the last three years being punished again and again as retribution for a single conversation, and who’d witnessed her former owner receive similar treatment, Celeste would’ve told Tomo that the smart thing for her runaway friend to do was keep running and never look back. Even smarter would be to just kill herself. But best of all, if she could find...

Celeste danced away from the thought, not letting it complete. If she knew something that could threaten Master Levi, she was obligated to warn him. If she even suspected, that would be enough. But she didn’t know, and she didn’t suspect. The pieces of the thought were all in her mind, but as long as she concentrated, she could keep them from coming together. She could hold two and two together in her head and not allow them to become four. She could avoid thinking about pink elephants.

Tomo tried three more times to talk to her before giving up, mewling softly as she waited for Master Levi to return and make her situation even worse. Celeste stared at her unblinking, her placid expression hiding the mental struggle within. Master Levi thought she was humbled, defeated, and broken. He didn’t realize that the duel they’d begun on the night he claimed her was not yet over. It had simply taken on a different form.

One day he would learn the truth. And on that day, he would die.

**********

“Sam told me I could find you here,” Seo-yun said. “Is it alright if I join you?”

Hanabi shrugged. “Suit yourself,” she said wearily. She was sitting on the bed that had once been Megumi’s, staring blankly at the wall. The priestess looked to have lived a rather spartan life before the fall of Hanei. Aside from a few knickknacks and a portion of the room set aside for cooking, her only possessions were some leather bound volumes on a shelf and a stack of old letters tied together with string, their paper yellow and brittle with age.

The white haired girl hadn’t touched the letters and had no intention of ever doing so, outside of cloaking them with foxfire whenever soldiers were around, but she’d thumbed through a few of the books out of boredom and the desire to find a distraction. To her surprise, they had all turned out to be romantic novels, and pretty steamy ones at that, if the pages she’d seen hadn’t been outliers. At any other time in her life, she would have been delighted at the discovery, but given what was going on outside and to the priestess herself right now, Hanabi had little appetite for romance.

The bed springs creaked as the red fox joined her on the bed. “I know these last few days have been difficult,” she said. “They have been very difficult for both Sam and myself, and we have the mercy of ignorance in our favor. I can’t imagine how painful all this must be for you.”

“I’m not going with you to the Paradisium,” Hanabi said without turning to look at her.

Seo-yun nodded. “I didn’t come here to discuss that. It is your decision and we will respect it.”

“Liar,” Hanabi said softly, without any heat. “You think that if you can get me to open up to you, I’ll change my mind. Your wife has the same plan, but at least she’s more honest about it.”

The four tailed fox was silent for a moment. “Yes, I suppose you’re correct. I was not thinking of it in such direct terms, but it is true that I still hope that you will reconsider, and believe that the more we get to know each other, the more likely you are to have a change of heart. I apologize.”

“You guys still don’t get it,” Hanabi told her. “You don’t **want** me. The only reason you’re considering me at all is because you have no other options.”

“And now you are the liar,” Seo-yun said calmly. “Because you know that’s not true.”

“It **should** be true,” Hanabi retorted bitterly. She let out a breath. “You’re right, I’m sure you can’t imagine what I’m feeling right now. Because you know what I think when I look outside? Do you know what my first, strongest, most honest thought is every time I see those bastards out there abusing my people? It’s not outrage, or wishing I could go out there and save everyone. It’s not even feeling awful about what’s happening to them. It’s ‘ **I’m glad that’s not me**.’ I’m not a hero, Seo-yun. I’m not some brave warrior who’s gonna pledge herself to your cause if you convince her you’re worthy. I’m a coward, and you’re better off without me.”

“There is no shame in being a coward,” Seo-yun told her. “I often wish that my wife was one, and didn’t keep throwing herself into danger. And if you think that you’re the only one terrified of those soldiers out there...” She held up her left hand, and let Hanabi see how it trembled. “I don’t have the nightmares as often as I once did, but when I do, he is always in them. I’m more afraid of Levi Petrov than I am of anything else in the world.”

“Then how do you do it?” the white haired girl asked. “And why? Even without foxfire, it can’t be **that** hard for the two of you to hide yourselves from Paragon and the Paradisium. You don’t need to be here fighting against the both of them like this. If it wasn’t Hanei, I don’t think I’d be willing to come within a hundred miles of this place. Even now, if the other side of that nexus was anything but the Paradisium, I’d be tempted to take off running and never look back. So how can you do all this for strangers?”

Seo-yun looked down at her hands in her lap, and was silent for a minute as she marshaled her thoughts. “One of my greatest regrets is that my parents were unable to pass more of their wisdom down to me before they were gone. I was still too young to understand much of what they said, and I’m certain that there are many things I have forgotten. So what conversations I do recall, I cherish.” She closed her eyes, as if trying to help herself remember.

“My father talked to me once about the tributes he and my mother received. He wasn’t talking about them directly - he used some tortured metaphor involving candy and chores that I will spare you from - but in hindsight I can see that they were what was on his mind. He told me that they were not a gift, they were a responsibility. When he took tribute from someone, he was making them a promise about the future. ‘Your offering is worthy and accepted. I pledge to do whatever I can to protect your people from dangers near and far.’ I believe those words were far more than mere ritual to him. He wasn’t just talking about accepting whatever physical goods they were handing over. He was talking about accepting the obligation to watch over them and those they cared about.”

“And you think you inherited all of their responsibilities?” Hanabi asked, but Seo-yun shook her head.

“I earned my obligations all on my own. There are many people out there who have helped me, who have sacrificed for me...” She touched her chest. “Who have died for me. They did not do such things as tribute, but I still feel that I owe them. I cannot simply disappear into the world and live a normal life without repaying my debts.”

“So that’s why you’re helping,” Hanabi said. “Because you think you have to.”

“Yes, though that is not the only reason. I also remember how it felt when I was helped, how good it was to know that there was more to the world than evil, and that even strangers who had nothing to gain by helping me would and did. I want to do that for others, and I want to prove that those who helped me were not wrong in their selflessness.”

Hanabi thought about all the foxes who had stayed silent when she’d been sneaking to retrieve her fox skin, even actively went out of their way to help her. She wanted to help them too, but… “I’m not good enough,” she said, and felt hot tears at the corners of her eyes. “So many people out there are dying, and I’m just sitting here and letting it happen. They **shouldn’t** have helped me!”

She felt an arm lightly encircle her. “Is this alright?” Seo-yun asked quietly, and when Hanabi nodded, the red haired woman hugged her tighter and pulled her to her. “I am certain that everyone out there who has helped you is happy that they did it. And that none of them would want you to feel guilty about it.”

“But I’m supposed to be saving them, and I’m not!” Hanabi said, openly sobbing by now. “They should have helped someone else! Someone who would know what to do! Someone who deserved it!”

“Then what you must do is obvious,” Seo-yun said gently. “Become someone who deserved their help. It is okay if you are not there yet, as long as you keep moving and work to get there someday. Worry less about who you are, and think more about who you would like to be.”

The white haired girl tried to respond, but she was crying too hard to form intelligible words now. It was like all the pain and terror and exhaustion of the last two weeks was pouring out of her all at once. Seo-yun’s arms were tight and warm around her as the girl cried and cried until she had no tears left. “Levi will be gone soon,” Seo-yun told her several times. “I promise.”

Hanabi didn’t ask her how. She just clung to the words as tightly as she clung to the woman, praying that she was correct, until sleep claimed her.

**********

Hanabi woke to the sound of Sam cursing up a storm. The redhead was rooting through the piles of supplies they’d accumulated, some pilfered from the nexus, others looted from the village. Glass crunched as she handled a jar too roughly, and she swore again and tossed it against the wall, not seeming to notice or care about the shards of glass in her palm.

“A single fucking weapon,” she growled. “How do we not have one **single**. **Fucking**. **Weapon**?”

Because the villagers had nothing outside of the spears and bows used for hunting, and they’d already agreed that stealing any of the firearms that the soldiers had brought was too much of a risk. If the theft went noticed, they’d go on alert, possibly torturing some of the foxes to find out who was responsible, and even if all three of them were armed to the teeth, they’d still be about as effective against Levi’s forces as a gnat. But Sam didn’t look like she would appreciate being reminded of any of that, so Hanabi didn’t bother. “What’s wrong?” she asked instead, trying to listen above the din to hear where Seo-yun was. Maybe she could talk some sense into the angry human.

Sam swiveled to look at her, and only then did Hanabi see the tears streaming down her face. “She’s **gone** ,” the woman snarled before turning back to her search. “That stupid, idealistic, wannabe **martyr** just went after Levi.”


End file.
